Nachdem das Interview mit Mikael Akerfeldt vor dem Konzert wg. des Krankenhausaufenthaltes von Martin Lopez abgesagt werden musste, stellte er sich per Mail meinen Fragen. Leider, wie ich sagen muss, denn er redet nicht nur wenig, sondern erscheint auch recht schreibfaul. Sei es drum. Hier das berühmte Frage/Antwort-Spielchen.
Peter: Das ist eure erste Tour durch Deutschland seit 5 Jahren. Warum hat das so lange gedauert??
Mikael Akerfeldt: Dafür gab es zwei Gründe. Zum einen bekamen wir keinen Urlaub, zum anderen hat uns der Labelmist aufgehalten.
Peter: Wie sind die Reaktionen auf der Tour bisher? Und was hast Du erwartet?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Die Reaktionen sind großartig! Wir hatten schon einige ausverkaufte Gigs, aber es gab auch welche, die nicht so voll waren wie erhofft.
Peter: Wie waren Deine Eindrücke vom Wacken-Gig?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Das war cool. Sooo viele Leute da.
Peter: "Blackwater Park" bekam euphorische Kritiken in allen Magazinen. Ist das euer erfolgreichstes Album bislang? Und wie viele Alben habt ihr in Deutschland verkaufen können?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Ja, das ist es. Aber ich habe keine Ahnung wie viele Alben wir in Deutschland verkauft haben. Es lief überall sehr gut.
Peter: Es gibt Gerüchte, die besagen, dass ihr bei der nächsten Veröffentlichung zwei Alben rausbringen wollt. Ein hartes und ein softes. Stimmt das? Und wenn ja, was können wir erwarten?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Das bleibt ein Geheimnis. Vielleicht, vielleicht auch nicht.
Peter: War das eure Idee oder die Idee des Labels?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Das bleibt dann ebenso ein Geheimnis.
Peter: Meinst Du, es ist klug euer spezielles Trademark zu zerstören?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Und auch dies kann ich Dir nicht beantworten. (hmpf!! – d. Verf.)
Peter: Habt Ihr schon mit dem Songwriting für das neue Album begonnen?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Ja, haben wir. Es läuft ganz gut. Es bleibt hart bei den härteren Songs, keine Sorge.
Peter: Die Texte und die Stimmungen in euren Songs sind immer sehr melancholisch, traurig und negativ. Wie bist Du im realen Leben?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Da bin so ziemlich das Gegenteil, aber habe auch dunkle Seiten.
Peter: Das Cover von "Blackwater Park" hat Travis Smith gemacht (u.a. Werke wie "Alive in Athens" – ICED EARTH und "Bleeding" – PSYCHOTIC WALTZ – d. Verf.) Wie seid ihr mit ihm in Kontakt gekommen?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Er hat ja auch schon "Still Life" gemacht. Wir haben seine E-Mail-Addresse von den KATATONIA-Jungs und so Kontakt aufgenommen.
Peter: Wie habt ihr Steve Wilson kennen gelernt? Wird er auch euer nächstes Album produzieren? Seid ihr beeinflusst von PORCUPINE TREE (die Band von Steve Wilson – d. Verf.)?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Auch das bleibt ein Geheimnis, aber PORCUPINE TREE sind die einzige Band, die heute etwas wirklich anderes macht.
Peter: Was hörst Du in deiner Freizeit für Musik?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Ich höre jede Musik. Bin da völlig offen.
Peter: Sind LANDBERK (schwedische, angefolkte Band – d. Verf.) eine Inspirationsquelle für OPETH?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Ja, aber selbstverständlich. Sie heißen jetzt aber PAATOS.
Peter: Können wir noch ein Album von BLOODBATH (Projekt von Akerfeldt, Dan Swanö und zwei KATATONIA-Leuten) erwarten?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Ja, kann man. (hmpf! – d. Verf.)
Peter: Was war mit Martin (Lopez, dr. – d. Verf.), dass er ins Krankenhaus musste? Kann er die Tour durchziehen?
Mikael Akerfeldt: Er hatte Probleme mit der Lunge, darum brachten wir ihn ins Krankenhaus. Aber er ist wieder wohlauf und kann die Tour spielen.
Das war es auch schon. Schade, dass er die wirklich interessanten Fragen nicht beantwortet hat, aber manchmal verrät ja auch ein Schweigen eine Menge.
Showing posts with label 2001. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2001. Show all posts
Friday, 30 November 2001
Wednesday, 12 September 2001
Mikael Åkerfeldt - Interview by Rodrigo (12 Sep 2001)
I recently had the opportunity to chat with Opeth's mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt. We discussed the lyrics and music of the new album Blackwater Park, the touring plans and a side project Mikael plans to do (if the time allows). It ended up being a great conversation. I want to thank Mikael for taking time in his busy schedule to talk with me.
Ultimate Metal: What does "Opeth" mean?
Mikael Åkerfeldt: Well it doesn't really mean anything its not a word or anything. It is taken from this book "The Sunbird" written by this guy called Wilbur Smith and Opeth was like a forgotten City, a City where its inhabitants committed mass suicides like in the deserts of Africa and its often referred to as the City of the Moon.
UM: What first struck me about listening to Blackwater Park was that it is softer and more melancholy than previous albums, is this statement accurate?
MÅ: Well I think if you compare it to Still Life, its basically a natural progression. I think that this album came out way darker than the last album, both lyrically and musically, and kind of more mysterious this time around. I would not call it melancholy, its just pitch black! Everything is kind of veiled in some kind of darkness.
UM: Well let's talk about the lyrics right now, is there a concept to this album?
MÅ: No, I really didn't have a concept this time. I felt like I have done that the last couple of albums. I wanted to do something different this time and maybe a bit more personal lyrics because obviously the concepts I come up with are pure fiction. I ended up writing lyrics 10 days before we were supposed to record and I wrote pretty fast; I didn't spend much time. Basically I ended up using everything I came up with. I just wrote. It is not a concept but you could say that there is a link between the songs because they all pretty much deal with the same kind of subject. Which are basically just personal thoughts taken from some kind of dark subconscious I got. I think all people have got some kind of dark inner thoughts and I kind of brought that forth for the lyrics this time. I found myself being more secluded from everything. I don't enjoy the company of people that much anymore. I am kind of suspicious of people.
UM: Why is that?
MÅ: Well, its just because I have had some strange experiences the last couple of years. I don't trust people; I think they always want to get something out of you. I am more of less disgusted sometimes by people. Its not as bad as it sounds, I kind of spiced up for the lyrics to make it a bit more interesting. In general I loathe people (Laughs). It sounds very strange, I am not a bad bird or anything like that, and I am pretty much a social guy. But it is just one of those feelings that you get once in a while: you feel like everybody is a fucking moron!
UM: I totally agree with you, sometimes I feel that way as well, I just want to be by myself.
MÅ: Yeah, I think many people have those kinds of feelings. I was kind of lucky to have them as I was writing lyrics, it made it much easier. I wasn't sure what I was going to write about. But it went pretty fast and I just wrote for a couple of days. When I heard the master I was kind of surprised by my own thoughts. They kind of ended up a bit more twisted than I expected. I thought to myself people are going to think I am some kind of fucking maniac if they don't understand what I mean. But still I can totally relate to. I might not be me but it is. (Laughs) Pretty strange, all the songs basically deal with that kind of subject.
UM: As far as the music is concerned is there a process you use to write songs?
MÅ: I have no kind of pattern that I follow when I write music. Basically I play guitar like a couple of hours everyday. I just sit around with the guitar watching television or something playing at the same time. Every now or then you come up with a riff. So I kind of store everything I wrote down. I don't care to write notes or anything. I got a little 4-track recording device, but I don't know how it works, so I always write down the riff, like some kind of thing about the riff that makes me remember what it was. Like the "Metallica riff" or the "Lousy riff" or something that makes me remember. Then when I start my riff it just happens that I come up with entire arrangements or parts and sometimes I write a song instantly and sometimes I just piece it together. I went over to a friend's house this time when I had done the big parts of the music and I recorded the basic song structure. Then I just played them to the band to see what they thought about it. Then we went to the studio because we never rehearsed for it. We rehearse in the studio.
UM: Then how do the other band members contribute?
MÅ: They don't really contribute to the writing itself. They contribute with their style of playing which is a big and very important part of all this. It just happens to be me writing everything. It is not that strange of a thing, most bands have one leading person when it comes to writing and in this case it just happens to be me. In the studio we kind of just leave most of the things out. We only have the basic structure written and then we record as fast as we can and then we spend the rest of the time experimenting. Leads, vocal harmonies and stuff like that. Experimenting a lot and that's what we have been doing. We did the same thing for Still Life, just record the basic song structure and then experimented. It is comfortable for everybody I think. None of us are really key in rehearsing a lot or anything like that. We just want to keep it kind of spontaneous. We want to come out with a record that's fresh for you; you are not bored with the tracks. With this album Peter and me listened to it in the car back home to Stockholm because we recorded in Gothenburg. We said "Ah! Fuck! I forgot about that section."
UM: Every single time I have been listening to the album I find something new with each song and I do not get bored with it all. This is also true with all your albums; something new always pops up with each listen.
MÅ: Yeah basically we try to have lots of subtle little things in the background. Maybe that you didn't discover in the first listen but with time you will. Also, due to the length of our songs and so many things happening, I think it's hard to get bored with an Opeth album because it offers you something new every time you listen to it.
UM: Exactly, I mean I can't understand the people who say some of your songs are too long.
MÅ: Maybe they don't have the patience and I cannot stand that. I don't have the patience for a 3-minute pop song. But I think a serious music lover would probably find something in our music, which will be impressed by them because it is good. But if you just comment on the length of the tracks "Its boring because its long" then I just can't understand your point because it still a record, its still music and if you just judge by the length of the tracks I just don't quite understand that.
UM: How did you hook up with Steven Wilson?
MÅ: Well, I have been a huge fan of Porcupine Tree for a few years. We got in touch because he was doing an interview with a magazine in France. The journalist gave him a copy of Still Life and my email address. I got an email from Steven Wilson saying that he loved the album and we started talking. I met him in London and we discussed doing something together, maybe write some music together and I kind of asked him "Would you be interested in producing Blackwater Park?" and he's like "Yeah!" So, he came up and worked for us for like two weeks or something.
UM: How was it working with him?
MÅ: Oh it was very cool. It was like a dream coming true. We never been really interested working with producers overall because we pretty much can manage to produce ourselves. But this time working with a guy like Steven, who is a very musical guy; I would dare to say that he is a genius. He knows every aspect of music; he is a very good lyric writer, he is a very good musician. He basically can play every instrument and he understands everything about us. He can tell if it's a good drumbeat or not. So we have many things in common. He kind of became a member of the family. We basically worked with him as a producer in terms that we wanted him to come up with some cool ideas, especially with sound. We never really worked a lot with sound in our self-productions. We just kind of set up one sound for the lead guitar and then we go with that for the entire album. This time around he came up with so many weird ideas, which we were happy to use. It was very cool to work with him.
UM: Who's idea was it for Steven to sing lead in "Bleak"?
MÅ: Well, it was a little kind of prayer because we wanted to have him in the album even before he came to the studio. So eventually we went to that part and said "Maybe it would be better if you did that part" and he is like "Yeah, I could play it out." It felt like magic, it was really cool because Peter and me recorded Steven when he sang. Afterwards, jokingly we said to him "That was a bad take". Once again just to be able to say that to your musical idol is very cool.
UM: The booklet also states that Steven also plays piano and guitar, were in the album does that occur?
MÅ: The piano is basically in "The Leper Affinity" and in the instrumental track (Patterns in the Ivy). The guitar solo is in "Bleak"; a little Pink Floyd influenced.
UM: The "3 eggs" that Markus Lindberg is credited with adding, what is that all about?
MÅ: (Laughs) Its also in "Bleak" its the part where the (at this point Mikael makes a maraca type sound). He was a participant in the studio. He had some band as well. So, we heard that and we were like "Could you do that?" I did it at first. The egg is like a little rhythm instrument; it's like a maraca. I did it a first but I was all tight. So he did it instead. We felt we should credit him in the booklet.
UM: During the first verse of "The Drapery Falls", while there is the acoustic guitar there is another sound that sounds like a slide guitar. I just love that.
MÅ: Yes that's true. That was my intention. That was one of the first songs I wrote for the album. I always thought we should have a slide thing here. I got a slide and I tried to play it at home and it sounded fine. So we did it on the album as well. I think its pretty cool. We must be one of the pioneers in death metal using a slide-bubble-bar-bubble-thing or whatever is called. We also used an E-Bow. We used that a lot on this album and also on Still Life. I bought it for Still Life. We kind of went crazy with it. I love it. We used it everywhere on Still Life and Blackwater Park. But the slide part is only used on "The Drapery Falls".
UM: Was "Patterns in the Ivy" intended to be an intro piece to "Blackwater Park" or is it just a solo piece?
MÅ: Not really, we kind of made up that track out to put it somewhere on the album so we didn't think in those terms. We just wanted to have a little breather in between the tracks. I think since "The Funeral Portrait" is a very heavy track and "Blackwater Park" being the longest song, we needed a little breather in between.
UM: Speaking of "Blackwater Park", I love how it starts heavy and then goes into a slow interlude. It is a great passage and totally unexpected when I first listened to it.
MÅ: That's one of those parts that almost wrote itself instantly. Because when I wrote the riff (Mikael hums the riff), it's like a Fleetwood Mac riff. From there I wrote all the riffs in like 3 hours. When I started with that riff it just built on by itself. So it was very easy. That acoustic part I think I wrote it initially like a distorted riff. It almost sounded like a stoner rock kind of riff at first. Then I just tried it without the distortion and it just sounded better. I think its one of the heaviest songs we have ever recorded.
UM: How satisfied are you with Blackwater Park? Anything you would change?
MÅ: No not really, of course you have some mistakes and stuff. But I stopped caring about mistakes; they are supposed to be there. Overall, we are all 100% satisfied with it. Personally, I think it's right now the best Opeth album but it's hard to say because it's the newest one. We haven't grown tired of it yet. I think it's definitely a worthy Opeth album.
UM: Do you have a particular favorite song?
MÅ: "Blackwater Park" is one of my favorites. "The Drapery Falls", "Bleak", well all of them are great but it kind of changes like every second week. I remember I wasn't a 100% certain of the first track (The Leper Affinity) then like 2 weeks later I was like "Fuck it! This rocks!" So basically I kind of care equally for them but "Blackwater Park" is one of the highlights.
UM: Who came up with the cover concept, the band or Travis Smith?
MÅ: Its Travis. I sent him all the lyrics and some ideas. It was going to be called "Blackwater Park" and we felt that we should have kind of like a Park-theme. He sent loads of pictures; all of them that were high quality and all of them could be used on the cover. But this one was one of the best so that's basically the reason why we used it. We wanted to create some kind of ghost like feeling with the cover and I think it goes along with the title of the album as well. We were very happy with that. He is a fucking Davinsky.
UM: So is the US tour with Nevermore and Children of Bodom going to occur?
MÅ: I think it's going to happen. It seems like it's already done all we have to do is some calculating on the costs. We are going to do 7 weeks in all.
UM: Who came up with the idea for this tour?
MÅ: I don't know. I got an email from the booking agency saying "Would you be interested in going out with Nevermore" and we were like "Yeah, Sure". Its been on and off for a month, its just when we were in London we put the last pieces in there kind of made it a reality. Its not totally officially yet but its basically 99% done. Before the Nevermore tour we are going to do a couple of gigs with Amorphis as well on the East Coast. We are going to do a couple of festivals there as well.
UM: How excited is the band to finally tour the USA?
MÅ: Very excited. I don't think much about the music, the musician in me. It's more like the tourist. I have been to the States once before so I pretty much look forward to seeing all the cities we are going to. It's going to be very cool. We had a very cool experience playing in the Milwaukee MetalFest. The crowd was amazing. We hope that we can kind of recreate that on each of the gigs on this tour. But it's going to be tough because it's such a long time. We have only done one tour before, back in 1996, so it's our first big tour in 5 years. I think it's going to a while to get in the right rhythm.
UM: What kind of set list are you thinking of?
MÅ: It depends; I think we get 55 minutes on stage each time. So we can pretty much cover each album we have done. But since this is a "Blackwater Park" tour if you will, we have to play at least 2 songs from it. So we are going to play "The Drapery Falls", "Blackwater Park", and from the old albums: "White Cluster", "Demon on the Fall", "Cadence", "Advent" and "Forest of October".
UM: After the problems that took Still Life in being released in the USA is it a great feeling to you and the band that the USA gets the album basically at the same time as Europe?
MÅ: Yes! It feels good. It's about time we get something arranged for the States because it's a very important market for us. It seems like we have loads of fans there. It's a shame about Still Life but I think it should be out as well. But I am not sure what's happening with that. Of course, we are very happy that Blackwater Park is coming out properly in the States. We hope it's going to make a difference. It feels good to release an album at the same time all over the world. We feel like Iron Maiden. (Laughs)
UM: What other plans do you have for the rest of the year?
MÅ: We are going to be pretty busy. The first thing we have is a little gig here in Sweden with Porcupine Tree. Then we do the US tour and then we fly directly to Holland to do Dynamo and we also are booked for the Wacken Festival in Germany. Also, something called EuroRock in Belgium. Which is the same guy who does Dynamo. Then we will take a little break for the rest of the summer. I think we have a European tour in the fall. It feels good; it's about time!!
UM: Is Bloodbath going to continue or was it just a one-time thing?
MÅ: It was meant for just that mini CD we did. But apparently Century Media is screaming for a full-length album. I am not a big part of it. It is basically Anders of Katatonia who handles it. So we are talking of doing songs for a full length and we might record something. So I might consider screaming somewhat on the album! But I really don't know what's going to happen.
UM: Are there any other projects you plan on getting involved?
MÅ: Well I am planning to do something together with a couple of friends of mine (members of Landberk and Spiritual Beggars). I don't know what is going to be like but it's going to be mellow. People have asked me to do an entire acoustic Opeth album. I am not sure that's going to happen but I am going to do something very mellow as a side project with a couple of friends of mine. I am not sure if it's going to happen or when! So we are going to try to come up with something cool. It's going to be a dream as well. One of the guys is a guitar player from Stockholm. He is amazing. I think I will just sing but maybe strum a little something for the guitar.
UM: When you are not doing something musically related what do you do (i.e. hobbies)?
MÅ: I collect Vinyl's of obscure 60's and 70's stuff. I play Playstation a lot. I have my girlfriend, my friends. Actually my girlfriend and I live together. But mostly I do something that is related to music. That's my only interest.
Ultimate Metal: What does "Opeth" mean?
Mikael Åkerfeldt: Well it doesn't really mean anything its not a word or anything. It is taken from this book "The Sunbird" written by this guy called Wilbur Smith and Opeth was like a forgotten City, a City where its inhabitants committed mass suicides like in the deserts of Africa and its often referred to as the City of the Moon.
UM: What first struck me about listening to Blackwater Park was that it is softer and more melancholy than previous albums, is this statement accurate?
MÅ: Well I think if you compare it to Still Life, its basically a natural progression. I think that this album came out way darker than the last album, both lyrically and musically, and kind of more mysterious this time around. I would not call it melancholy, its just pitch black! Everything is kind of veiled in some kind of darkness.
UM: Well let's talk about the lyrics right now, is there a concept to this album?
MÅ: No, I really didn't have a concept this time. I felt like I have done that the last couple of albums. I wanted to do something different this time and maybe a bit more personal lyrics because obviously the concepts I come up with are pure fiction. I ended up writing lyrics 10 days before we were supposed to record and I wrote pretty fast; I didn't spend much time. Basically I ended up using everything I came up with. I just wrote. It is not a concept but you could say that there is a link between the songs because they all pretty much deal with the same kind of subject. Which are basically just personal thoughts taken from some kind of dark subconscious I got. I think all people have got some kind of dark inner thoughts and I kind of brought that forth for the lyrics this time. I found myself being more secluded from everything. I don't enjoy the company of people that much anymore. I am kind of suspicious of people.
UM: Why is that?
MÅ: Well, its just because I have had some strange experiences the last couple of years. I don't trust people; I think they always want to get something out of you. I am more of less disgusted sometimes by people. Its not as bad as it sounds, I kind of spiced up for the lyrics to make it a bit more interesting. In general I loathe people (Laughs). It sounds very strange, I am not a bad bird or anything like that, and I am pretty much a social guy. But it is just one of those feelings that you get once in a while: you feel like everybody is a fucking moron!
UM: I totally agree with you, sometimes I feel that way as well, I just want to be by myself.
MÅ: Yeah, I think many people have those kinds of feelings. I was kind of lucky to have them as I was writing lyrics, it made it much easier. I wasn't sure what I was going to write about. But it went pretty fast and I just wrote for a couple of days. When I heard the master I was kind of surprised by my own thoughts. They kind of ended up a bit more twisted than I expected. I thought to myself people are going to think I am some kind of fucking maniac if they don't understand what I mean. But still I can totally relate to. I might not be me but it is. (Laughs) Pretty strange, all the songs basically deal with that kind of subject.
UM: As far as the music is concerned is there a process you use to write songs?
MÅ: I have no kind of pattern that I follow when I write music. Basically I play guitar like a couple of hours everyday. I just sit around with the guitar watching television or something playing at the same time. Every now or then you come up with a riff. So I kind of store everything I wrote down. I don't care to write notes or anything. I got a little 4-track recording device, but I don't know how it works, so I always write down the riff, like some kind of thing about the riff that makes me remember what it was. Like the "Metallica riff" or the "Lousy riff" or something that makes me remember. Then when I start my riff it just happens that I come up with entire arrangements or parts and sometimes I write a song instantly and sometimes I just piece it together. I went over to a friend's house this time when I had done the big parts of the music and I recorded the basic song structure. Then I just played them to the band to see what they thought about it. Then we went to the studio because we never rehearsed for it. We rehearse in the studio.
UM: Then how do the other band members contribute?
MÅ: They don't really contribute to the writing itself. They contribute with their style of playing which is a big and very important part of all this. It just happens to be me writing everything. It is not that strange of a thing, most bands have one leading person when it comes to writing and in this case it just happens to be me. In the studio we kind of just leave most of the things out. We only have the basic structure written and then we record as fast as we can and then we spend the rest of the time experimenting. Leads, vocal harmonies and stuff like that. Experimenting a lot and that's what we have been doing. We did the same thing for Still Life, just record the basic song structure and then experimented. It is comfortable for everybody I think. None of us are really key in rehearsing a lot or anything like that. We just want to keep it kind of spontaneous. We want to come out with a record that's fresh for you; you are not bored with the tracks. With this album Peter and me listened to it in the car back home to Stockholm because we recorded in Gothenburg. We said "Ah! Fuck! I forgot about that section."
UM: Every single time I have been listening to the album I find something new with each song and I do not get bored with it all. This is also true with all your albums; something new always pops up with each listen.
MÅ: Yeah basically we try to have lots of subtle little things in the background. Maybe that you didn't discover in the first listen but with time you will. Also, due to the length of our songs and so many things happening, I think it's hard to get bored with an Opeth album because it offers you something new every time you listen to it.
UM: Exactly, I mean I can't understand the people who say some of your songs are too long.
MÅ: Maybe they don't have the patience and I cannot stand that. I don't have the patience for a 3-minute pop song. But I think a serious music lover would probably find something in our music, which will be impressed by them because it is good. But if you just comment on the length of the tracks "Its boring because its long" then I just can't understand your point because it still a record, its still music and if you just judge by the length of the tracks I just don't quite understand that.
UM: How did you hook up with Steven Wilson?
MÅ: Well, I have been a huge fan of Porcupine Tree for a few years. We got in touch because he was doing an interview with a magazine in France. The journalist gave him a copy of Still Life and my email address. I got an email from Steven Wilson saying that he loved the album and we started talking. I met him in London and we discussed doing something together, maybe write some music together and I kind of asked him "Would you be interested in producing Blackwater Park?" and he's like "Yeah!" So, he came up and worked for us for like two weeks or something.
UM: How was it working with him?
MÅ: Oh it was very cool. It was like a dream coming true. We never been really interested working with producers overall because we pretty much can manage to produce ourselves. But this time working with a guy like Steven, who is a very musical guy; I would dare to say that he is a genius. He knows every aspect of music; he is a very good lyric writer, he is a very good musician. He basically can play every instrument and he understands everything about us. He can tell if it's a good drumbeat or not. So we have many things in common. He kind of became a member of the family. We basically worked with him as a producer in terms that we wanted him to come up with some cool ideas, especially with sound. We never really worked a lot with sound in our self-productions. We just kind of set up one sound for the lead guitar and then we go with that for the entire album. This time around he came up with so many weird ideas, which we were happy to use. It was very cool to work with him.
UM: Who's idea was it for Steven to sing lead in "Bleak"?
MÅ: Well, it was a little kind of prayer because we wanted to have him in the album even before he came to the studio. So eventually we went to that part and said "Maybe it would be better if you did that part" and he is like "Yeah, I could play it out." It felt like magic, it was really cool because Peter and me recorded Steven when he sang. Afterwards, jokingly we said to him "That was a bad take". Once again just to be able to say that to your musical idol is very cool.
UM: The booklet also states that Steven also plays piano and guitar, were in the album does that occur?
MÅ: The piano is basically in "The Leper Affinity" and in the instrumental track (Patterns in the Ivy). The guitar solo is in "Bleak"; a little Pink Floyd influenced.
UM: The "3 eggs" that Markus Lindberg is credited with adding, what is that all about?
MÅ: (Laughs) Its also in "Bleak" its the part where the (at this point Mikael makes a maraca type sound). He was a participant in the studio. He had some band as well. So, we heard that and we were like "Could you do that?" I did it at first. The egg is like a little rhythm instrument; it's like a maraca. I did it a first but I was all tight. So he did it instead. We felt we should credit him in the booklet.
UM: During the first verse of "The Drapery Falls", while there is the acoustic guitar there is another sound that sounds like a slide guitar. I just love that.
MÅ: Yes that's true. That was my intention. That was one of the first songs I wrote for the album. I always thought we should have a slide thing here. I got a slide and I tried to play it at home and it sounded fine. So we did it on the album as well. I think its pretty cool. We must be one of the pioneers in death metal using a slide-bubble-bar-bubble-thing or whatever is called. We also used an E-Bow. We used that a lot on this album and also on Still Life. I bought it for Still Life. We kind of went crazy with it. I love it. We used it everywhere on Still Life and Blackwater Park. But the slide part is only used on "The Drapery Falls".
UM: Was "Patterns in the Ivy" intended to be an intro piece to "Blackwater Park" or is it just a solo piece?
MÅ: Not really, we kind of made up that track out to put it somewhere on the album so we didn't think in those terms. We just wanted to have a little breather in between the tracks. I think since "The Funeral Portrait" is a very heavy track and "Blackwater Park" being the longest song, we needed a little breather in between.
UM: Speaking of "Blackwater Park", I love how it starts heavy and then goes into a slow interlude. It is a great passage and totally unexpected when I first listened to it.
MÅ: That's one of those parts that almost wrote itself instantly. Because when I wrote the riff (Mikael hums the riff), it's like a Fleetwood Mac riff. From there I wrote all the riffs in like 3 hours. When I started with that riff it just built on by itself. So it was very easy. That acoustic part I think I wrote it initially like a distorted riff. It almost sounded like a stoner rock kind of riff at first. Then I just tried it without the distortion and it just sounded better. I think its one of the heaviest songs we have ever recorded.
UM: How satisfied are you with Blackwater Park? Anything you would change?
MÅ: No not really, of course you have some mistakes and stuff. But I stopped caring about mistakes; they are supposed to be there. Overall, we are all 100% satisfied with it. Personally, I think it's right now the best Opeth album but it's hard to say because it's the newest one. We haven't grown tired of it yet. I think it's definitely a worthy Opeth album.
UM: Do you have a particular favorite song?
MÅ: "Blackwater Park" is one of my favorites. "The Drapery Falls", "Bleak", well all of them are great but it kind of changes like every second week. I remember I wasn't a 100% certain of the first track (The Leper Affinity) then like 2 weeks later I was like "Fuck it! This rocks!" So basically I kind of care equally for them but "Blackwater Park" is one of the highlights.
UM: Who came up with the cover concept, the band or Travis Smith?
MÅ: Its Travis. I sent him all the lyrics and some ideas. It was going to be called "Blackwater Park" and we felt that we should have kind of like a Park-theme. He sent loads of pictures; all of them that were high quality and all of them could be used on the cover. But this one was one of the best so that's basically the reason why we used it. We wanted to create some kind of ghost like feeling with the cover and I think it goes along with the title of the album as well. We were very happy with that. He is a fucking Davinsky.
UM: So is the US tour with Nevermore and Children of Bodom going to occur?
MÅ: I think it's going to happen. It seems like it's already done all we have to do is some calculating on the costs. We are going to do 7 weeks in all.
UM: Who came up with the idea for this tour?
MÅ: I don't know. I got an email from the booking agency saying "Would you be interested in going out with Nevermore" and we were like "Yeah, Sure". Its been on and off for a month, its just when we were in London we put the last pieces in there kind of made it a reality. Its not totally officially yet but its basically 99% done. Before the Nevermore tour we are going to do a couple of gigs with Amorphis as well on the East Coast. We are going to do a couple of festivals there as well.
UM: How excited is the band to finally tour the USA?
MÅ: Very excited. I don't think much about the music, the musician in me. It's more like the tourist. I have been to the States once before so I pretty much look forward to seeing all the cities we are going to. It's going to be very cool. We had a very cool experience playing in the Milwaukee MetalFest. The crowd was amazing. We hope that we can kind of recreate that on each of the gigs on this tour. But it's going to be tough because it's such a long time. We have only done one tour before, back in 1996, so it's our first big tour in 5 years. I think it's going to a while to get in the right rhythm.
UM: What kind of set list are you thinking of?
MÅ: It depends; I think we get 55 minutes on stage each time. So we can pretty much cover each album we have done. But since this is a "Blackwater Park" tour if you will, we have to play at least 2 songs from it. So we are going to play "The Drapery Falls", "Blackwater Park", and from the old albums: "White Cluster", "Demon on the Fall", "Cadence", "Advent" and "Forest of October".
UM: After the problems that took Still Life in being released in the USA is it a great feeling to you and the band that the USA gets the album basically at the same time as Europe?
MÅ: Yes! It feels good. It's about time we get something arranged for the States because it's a very important market for us. It seems like we have loads of fans there. It's a shame about Still Life but I think it should be out as well. But I am not sure what's happening with that. Of course, we are very happy that Blackwater Park is coming out properly in the States. We hope it's going to make a difference. It feels good to release an album at the same time all over the world. We feel like Iron Maiden. (Laughs)
UM: What other plans do you have for the rest of the year?
MÅ: We are going to be pretty busy. The first thing we have is a little gig here in Sweden with Porcupine Tree. Then we do the US tour and then we fly directly to Holland to do Dynamo and we also are booked for the Wacken Festival in Germany. Also, something called EuroRock in Belgium. Which is the same guy who does Dynamo. Then we will take a little break for the rest of the summer. I think we have a European tour in the fall. It feels good; it's about time!!
UM: Is Bloodbath going to continue or was it just a one-time thing?
MÅ: It was meant for just that mini CD we did. But apparently Century Media is screaming for a full-length album. I am not a big part of it. It is basically Anders of Katatonia who handles it. So we are talking of doing songs for a full length and we might record something. So I might consider screaming somewhat on the album! But I really don't know what's going to happen.
UM: Are there any other projects you plan on getting involved?
MÅ: Well I am planning to do something together with a couple of friends of mine (members of Landberk and Spiritual Beggars). I don't know what is going to be like but it's going to be mellow. People have asked me to do an entire acoustic Opeth album. I am not sure that's going to happen but I am going to do something very mellow as a side project with a couple of friends of mine. I am not sure if it's going to happen or when! So we are going to try to come up with something cool. It's going to be a dream as well. One of the guys is a guitar player from Stockholm. He is amazing. I think I will just sing but maybe strum a little something for the guitar.
UM: When you are not doing something musically related what do you do (i.e. hobbies)?
MÅ: I collect Vinyl's of obscure 60's and 70's stuff. I play Playstation a lot. I have my girlfriend, my friends. Actually my girlfriend and I live together. But mostly I do something that is related to music. That's my only interest.
Wednesday, 4 July 2001
Mikael Åkerfeldt - Interview by Gabe (04 Jul 2001)
Oh lord, a live interview with Mikael Åkerfeldt?!?! I'm light-headed...Check my pulse...Am I hyperventilating? I think I wet myself...Grab the Huggies... This interview was done in the VIP lounge (yes, I was a "VIP" for a few hours) at the Canyon Club in Dallas, TX, after OPETH had finished their 55 minute set of sheer musical artistry. I had to miss NEVERMORE to get this, but it was a small sacrifice in order to briefly speak with such a mighty Metal-mogul.
The questions were written on a napkin, and this was only the second live-interview I'd ever conducted (the first being six hours earlier with Peter Lindgren, quite possibly the nicest person I have ever met, who actually made sure I got this interview!). Forgive me if I couldn't get some more detailed responses, but Mr. Åkerfeldt also seemed a bit "weary" after playing the show, and I could tell he was itching to get to the pool table and beer bin. Regardless, he was a total gentleman, despite being totally shitty at pool. Enjoy...
So, a question for our readers first: how are the crowds responding to OPETH, and how do the US crowds compare to the Canadian ones?
Well Canada is a country that's definitely very hard to compete with. They are absolutely crazy there! But we've had a very good response in America as well, it's just that the crowds are a bit "different" in Canada, they're completely insane.
You guys rehearsed a grand total of THREE times before recording "Blackwater Park"! Does it all just sort of "come together" when you all get into the studio?
Yeah I think so. I wrote the music, recorded the demos, and sent it all out to the other guys in the band. We all live in Stockholm, so I gave them tapes of some ideas for songs.
You do most of your writing on acoustic guitar right?
Yes. Almost everything's written on acoustic.
Did Steven Wilson from PORCUPINE TREE help you out mostly with vocal ideas and such?
Yeah, I wanted him, because I like his production-style overall, but he couldn't be there for the entire time, so we asked him just to help out on the lead guitars and the voice. Like on "Still Life" we always [double]-tracked every vocal line, but he didn't want to do that. We were like "hmmm...yeah let's try it out," and I think it worked out fine!
Definitely! I also must ask about this "no bad albums" issue. Care to comment?
Well when I say that, that's what I mean, y'know? We don't make music for anyone besides ourselves, and that, to me, makes sense. It's our band, as long as we like it, that's all that matters.*
So you work in a record store as I understand, and I also hear that you have a habit of blowing entire paychecks on new records?
Yeah, that's true! I sometimes choose vinyl before food! And it's one of my dreams to own a record store of my own someday.
The song "Harvest" on "Blackwater..." was a bit of a departure for OPETH in a way. Most of your songs aren't "unplugged" all the way through...
That was one of the songs that was pretty much finished beforehand. The octaved vocals in the verse is something I've always wanted to try out, cause I like the sound of that, and I could do it, because basically the [melody] is too low for me, so when I would sing the verse with my low voice, it sounded a bit off. So, I just figured if we did some octaves it would sound really cool.
Any chance of you and Dan Swanö doing some more future collaborations like the BLOODBATH-thing?
I'm not sure, with him he could call me up one day and say "just come down and stay with me for a week and we'll record some stuff!". I've pretty much got all the time in the world, besides the fact that we're touring right now, and he's working constantly, so I don't know. He's pretty much out of the Metal-scene. He's still doing music, but he's not gonna do any touring, he's just putting out some albums when he feels like it...
I heard some news of a new side-project of yours, I can't recall who it's gonna include, but I remember reading that it would be with lots of dark acoustics and keyboards. Do you have any idea what I might be referring to here?
That's something that I've been wanting to do for a really long time. There's a guitar-player in Stockholm that I've really admired for a long time, and he's gonna be involved in it.
What's his name?
[says a Swedish name that is hopelessly impossible to discern, sorry - Gabe]...
Alrighty...Who will be on keyboards then?
It's the keyboardist for SPIRITUAL BEGGARS. I've written some stuff, but I'm still not really sure if it's gonna be for OPETH or for that project.
Yeah, I was just gonna ask if there's anything written for the next OPETH-opus...
Well right now I'm feeling sort of drained, musically. I just don't have a lot of music in me right now. I have to have some piece of mind and just sort of take it easy before I start writing again. I play guitar every day when I come home, and I don't have to work every day, I just work when I want, so it's nice. The guys at my work don't have any choice [laughing].
Any chance that you might spontaneously decide to switch producers and studios for this next album?
Well I think what really matters with that isn't so much the producer and studio, it's really about your OWN state of mind. In any studio, you can do something good if you've got quality music to work with. But we really like being in Fredman, and I'm pretty much guessing that we're gonna go back there for the next album. Then again, it doesn't really matter to me in the end. Fredman's cheap for us, and we get a really good production there...
It sure doesn't "sound" cheap!
No, but it's cheap in comparison to many other studios. We were talking with the guys in NEVERMORE, and they recorded at a studio here in Texas actually, and it was, like $800 a day! We did ours for $300 a day.
Ok, now to the good part for me: who were some guitar heroes of yours that made you want to play?
Well, first it had to be guys like Yngwie Malmsteen. I liked the fact that there was this spotlight on him as a guitar player. Some of those more progressive player are really great, like Robert Fripp and the guy from CAMEL, Andy Lattimer (sp? - Gabe). I'm not too much into the technical side of things anymore, because I think Yngwie has done it all. I can play some of that fast stuff, but I'm not that into it really...
And your vocals...Everyone is very impressed with the way you are able to play a show and switch in and out of the lower, growling vocals to the clean vocals so effortlessly. How do you practice these things?
Well the first time I tried the screaming vocals, I just did it my way, I didn't know how to do it really. Now, I do it differently, I use a kind of "compressor" in my throat. It's perfect for a microphone, because it doesn't sound very loud, it's not too loud in volume, but it works on recordings and at our shows very well.
And last but not least, what are some of your favourite albums at the moment?
Well, I didn't bring any of my own records on this tour, so I've mostly been listening to what everyone else brought...
At the moment:
PORCUPINE TREE - the new demos I just got
KATATONIA - "Last Fair Deal Gone Down"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Diary Of A Madman"
Well thank you very much for doing this interview, Mikael! Great show tonight and good luck with the rest of the tour!
Thanks. Now I'm gonna go beat Martin's ass at pool...
The questions were written on a napkin, and this was only the second live-interview I'd ever conducted (the first being six hours earlier with Peter Lindgren, quite possibly the nicest person I have ever met, who actually made sure I got this interview!). Forgive me if I couldn't get some more detailed responses, but Mr. Åkerfeldt also seemed a bit "weary" after playing the show, and I could tell he was itching to get to the pool table and beer bin. Regardless, he was a total gentleman, despite being totally shitty at pool. Enjoy...
So, a question for our readers first: how are the crowds responding to OPETH, and how do the US crowds compare to the Canadian ones?
Well Canada is a country that's definitely very hard to compete with. They are absolutely crazy there! But we've had a very good response in America as well, it's just that the crowds are a bit "different" in Canada, they're completely insane.
You guys rehearsed a grand total of THREE times before recording "Blackwater Park"! Does it all just sort of "come together" when you all get into the studio?
Yeah I think so. I wrote the music, recorded the demos, and sent it all out to the other guys in the band. We all live in Stockholm, so I gave them tapes of some ideas for songs.
You do most of your writing on acoustic guitar right?
Yes. Almost everything's written on acoustic.
Did Steven Wilson from PORCUPINE TREE help you out mostly with vocal ideas and such?
Yeah, I wanted him, because I like his production-style overall, but he couldn't be there for the entire time, so we asked him just to help out on the lead guitars and the voice. Like on "Still Life" we always [double]-tracked every vocal line, but he didn't want to do that. We were like "hmmm...yeah let's try it out," and I think it worked out fine!
Definitely! I also must ask about this "no bad albums" issue. Care to comment?
Well when I say that, that's what I mean, y'know? We don't make music for anyone besides ourselves, and that, to me, makes sense. It's our band, as long as we like it, that's all that matters.*
So you work in a record store as I understand, and I also hear that you have a habit of blowing entire paychecks on new records?
Yeah, that's true! I sometimes choose vinyl before food! And it's one of my dreams to own a record store of my own someday.
The song "Harvest" on "Blackwater..." was a bit of a departure for OPETH in a way. Most of your songs aren't "unplugged" all the way through...
That was one of the songs that was pretty much finished beforehand. The octaved vocals in the verse is something I've always wanted to try out, cause I like the sound of that, and I could do it, because basically the [melody] is too low for me, so when I would sing the verse with my low voice, it sounded a bit off. So, I just figured if we did some octaves it would sound really cool.
Any chance of you and Dan Swanö doing some more future collaborations like the BLOODBATH-thing?
I'm not sure, with him he could call me up one day and say "just come down and stay with me for a week and we'll record some stuff!". I've pretty much got all the time in the world, besides the fact that we're touring right now, and he's working constantly, so I don't know. He's pretty much out of the Metal-scene. He's still doing music, but he's not gonna do any touring, he's just putting out some albums when he feels like it...
I heard some news of a new side-project of yours, I can't recall who it's gonna include, but I remember reading that it would be with lots of dark acoustics and keyboards. Do you have any idea what I might be referring to here?
That's something that I've been wanting to do for a really long time. There's a guitar-player in Stockholm that I've really admired for a long time, and he's gonna be involved in it.
What's his name?
[says a Swedish name that is hopelessly impossible to discern, sorry - Gabe]...
Alrighty...Who will be on keyboards then?
It's the keyboardist for SPIRITUAL BEGGARS. I've written some stuff, but I'm still not really sure if it's gonna be for OPETH or for that project.
Yeah, I was just gonna ask if there's anything written for the next OPETH-opus...
Well right now I'm feeling sort of drained, musically. I just don't have a lot of music in me right now. I have to have some piece of mind and just sort of take it easy before I start writing again. I play guitar every day when I come home, and I don't have to work every day, I just work when I want, so it's nice. The guys at my work don't have any choice [laughing].
Any chance that you might spontaneously decide to switch producers and studios for this next album?
Well I think what really matters with that isn't so much the producer and studio, it's really about your OWN state of mind. In any studio, you can do something good if you've got quality music to work with. But we really like being in Fredman, and I'm pretty much guessing that we're gonna go back there for the next album. Then again, it doesn't really matter to me in the end. Fredman's cheap for us, and we get a really good production there...
It sure doesn't "sound" cheap!
No, but it's cheap in comparison to many other studios. We were talking with the guys in NEVERMORE, and they recorded at a studio here in Texas actually, and it was, like $800 a day! We did ours for $300 a day.
Ok, now to the good part for me: who were some guitar heroes of yours that made you want to play?
Well, first it had to be guys like Yngwie Malmsteen. I liked the fact that there was this spotlight on him as a guitar player. Some of those more progressive player are really great, like Robert Fripp and the guy from CAMEL, Andy Lattimer (sp? - Gabe). I'm not too much into the technical side of things anymore, because I think Yngwie has done it all. I can play some of that fast stuff, but I'm not that into it really...
And your vocals...Everyone is very impressed with the way you are able to play a show and switch in and out of the lower, growling vocals to the clean vocals so effortlessly. How do you practice these things?
Well the first time I tried the screaming vocals, I just did it my way, I didn't know how to do it really. Now, I do it differently, I use a kind of "compressor" in my throat. It's perfect for a microphone, because it doesn't sound very loud, it's not too loud in volume, but it works on recordings and at our shows very well.
And last but not least, what are some of your favourite albums at the moment?
Well, I didn't bring any of my own records on this tour, so I've mostly been listening to what everyone else brought...
At the moment:
PORCUPINE TREE - the new demos I just got
KATATONIA - "Last Fair Deal Gone Down"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Diary Of A Madman"
Well thank you very much for doing this interview, Mikael! Great show tonight and good luck with the rest of the tour!
Thanks. Now I'm gonna go beat Martin's ass at pool...
Peter Lindgren - Interview by Gabe (04 Jul 2001)
OPETH are just OPETH, a different description just won't fit, too multi-faceted is their sound. After Wes had had the opportunity to do an interview with the guys at the beginning of the year for their new masterpiece "Blackwater Park", the Gentlemen Lindgren and Åkerfeldt were (un?)fortunate enough to meet the Gabester. Well, they both were arrested immediately to give us a deep insight into this band extraordinaire, here the first part with Peter Lindgren.
How has the tour gone so far for you guys?
This tour is actually two tours. We did eight dates with AMORPHIS, in April, in the northeast United States and Canada. Then we did the same thing with NEVERMORE again. We started in Denver, and then we went up through Chicago, Toronto, and all those places. Now we're coming down south. And the tour is going really well, better than we ever expected…
How has it been, compared to Europe?
It's hard for me to compare, because we haven't done a proper tour in Europe since 1996, and that was for "Morningrise", and apparently at the time we weren't very well-known. We did the tour with CRADLE OF FILTH, and their audience is not our audience. It was a good tour, but…we're also gonna do a tour when we get back to Europe. But I think in the US, it's as big as "the whole" of Europe, and it differs from place to place, as it does in Europe. I mean, southern Europe is really crazy, but Sweden is really calm and "stiff". And it's sort of the same here in the US, although people here can be really crazy too…
OPETH's music is so varied. I know that, where I'm from, the audiences are into mainly the brutal stuff, the DEATH METAL y'know! But you guys cover the whole gamut with your music: the heaviness, the acoustics, the melodies, the brutality, everything… How do the audiences tend to respond to the "variety" in your music, in the live situation?
On stage, we try to do what you can hear on the albums, and we've just been doing it for such a long time. The acoustic parts we do with clean electric guitars, and there seems to be loads of die-hard fans coming to our shows, and they know what's going on. So we really don't baffle them at all! But I think people that haven't heard us might be…y'know…they come up to us 'HOW do you DO that?', and it's like 'we just turn the distortion off' (laughs)…But we've been doing it for so long! All these people ask us 'how do you pull off all of these long songs on stage?' but we've been doing it for over ten years now.
(chuckling) Yeah I'd always wondered about that myself, because my personal favorite OPETH album is "Morningrise", and that one's got the 10-minutes songs, and then there's "Black Rose Immortal" (we both laugh)…Do you guys ever cut songs short?
NO!
That surprises me, I was hoping you'd do a "Morningrise Medley"!
Well, people ask if we can play "Black Rose Immortal", and that would obviously be almost half the set! So maybe when we're headlining…but when we only have like 50-55 minutes, that's like half the set, so we just have to choose some of our "shorter" songs…
DAMN! Only 55 minutes?!?!
Yeah, 50-55 minutes on this tour, and that means five or six songs…
So what's the setlist for tonight?
Well I don't know how much time we'll have, but we try to cover all the albums.
So one song per album?
Yeah. But it depends, five minutes before we get up on stage we decide what to play…
(amazed) Well anyway…We've got a lot of Canadian readers, and I just wanted to ask, on their behalf, how was the general response to you all in Canada? I understand you drew some pretty massive crowds there!
We went to Toronto, Montreal, and a place called Rimouski. In Rimouski, we had a good show, but it seemed like none of the people there had even heard of us! But Toronto and Montreal was absolutely crazy! And actually for those two cities, we did them both with AMORPHIS AND NEVERMORE, so we did them twice in two weeks. And all four shows were great! So at the time, we were thinking "maybe we should just go between Montreal and Toronto every day, back and forth" (laughs)…
On a personal note, and I'm sure I can speak for many other people from North America who had to pay import price for "Still Life", it wasn't available here in the States for like over a year and a half, and to say that it pissed me off would be a drastic understatement! But now thanks to Koch Records, you seem to be doing well here with "Blackwater Park"…
Well we're on Music For Nations, and they don't have American distribution either, but they put some of their bands on Koch, us and CRADLE OF FILTH for example, and usually Koch is doing, like, World Wrestling Federation and Pokemon, stuff like that…
They ARE?!?!
Yeah! I was in their office, and I expected to see all of the gold-albums, like Music For Nations had, but they had all this WWF-stuff! It's like "what?"…But they do a really good job for us. The new album is the easiest to get I think, and "Still Life" seems to be the hardest.
Well, I've just been seeing it in stores, in special slipcases, but I had to pay like $23 for the friggin' thing!
That's insane, because I think if Peaceville could just pull themselves together and get some Stateside distribution…
Well I've just now started seeing some MY DYING BRIDE and DARKTHRONE re-issues by them lately, so at least they're doing SOMETHING now…
Really! But it's way late now…because "Still Life" has been out for like two years in Europe. We released it in October '99 in Europe…
Yeah…But anyway, I've got another question you may not want to answer: rumour has it that you guys don't rehearse before going into the studio, or at least you don't rehearse more than 2-3 times. Do you have, like, certain parts written beforehand, or whole songs arranged, before going into the studio?
What we do is, like we have the basics done, the basic riffs, drumming, and the basic arrangements I guess, but no lyrics are written, not many vocal lines are written. We like to spend loads of time in the studio, just experimenting…
How long did "Blackwater Park" take?
Two months. And it's pretty boring to be in the studio for two months, but then again, the first album ("Orchid") we recorded in 12 days. We'd been rehearsing the songs for three years, and knew exactly what to do, so we just went in and "ch-ch-ch-ch-ch…". But then again, at the end of the day, there were no surprises for us! On the new album, when I got back home it was like "oh yeah, wow, I don't remember that part!"…
(laughing) Yeah I would think it would be more interesting for YOU to listen back to an album in that sense, because it's more "spontaneous" sounding, as you guys are known for with your music, the spontaneity is what I think really catches the listener, even on "Orchid" I get that feeling…
It's exciting for me, but it's DARING, too, because you're not sure! I mean in the studio we try to work until we're satisfied, and I'm really satisfied with all five albums. And when we left the studio for this one, I was satisfied too. But when I listened to it at home, there were all these surprises, and sometimes it happens like "ohhh, that's really good!" I just think it's another way of recording things, and actually, for "Still Life" we rehearsed twice, and we thought that was not enough, so we rehearsed THREE times for this one!
(laughing) Oh yeah, you gotta put in that extra one I guess…
But then again, you know, someone told me that if you don't rehearse that much, it's fresher when you PLAY it. I don't know, maybe that's true…
Another thing I've found with OPETH is that it seems like certain songs could perhaps be TEN songs in one, with all the dynamic changes, at least in the eyes, or rather, EARS, of most listeners. But then you guys do songs like "Harvest" on the new album, which seems like a borderline "radio-friendly" song, with the octaved clean vocals and general laid-back vibe. How did that song come about?
That one was written beforehand. It was one of the few that was pretty much totally written before we went in to record, including the vocal lines…
That's what I thought.
Yeah, on each album we try to "expand". Like on "Morningrise" we did the "To Bid You Farewell" ballad, that was a risky thing to do, because at the time, no one really did ballads. We got criticism for that, but after doing it, we could do whatever we wanted on every album. So now we can have "soft pop" songs on every album (laughing). It's just about good music for me, I don't care about tags or anything. If people call us Death Metal and they put one of THOSE songs on, if they don't like it…
(interrupting) Man, I hear people calling you all "Progressive Death Metal", "Symphonic Blackened Metal", even "Forest Metal", but I just say "they're just OPETH!"
Well, yeah, it's all about music, that's pretty much it.
That's what separates you guys from almost every band I think, the whole "genre"-thing doesn't matter when it comes to your music!
Thank you!
Anyway…Steve Wilson from PORCUPINE TREE came in for 12 days to help you all with the recording of "Blackwater Park" correct?
Well when he arrived we had recorded all the basic structures like the rhythm guitars, bass, and drums. His help was with the vocal lines and the guitar leads mostly, with SOUNDS basically, because he's really good with SOUNDS, and we wanted to experiment a bit with vocal sounds.
Yeah I can hear at some parts, with the vocals…Some people have actually dubbed them as "cell phone" vocals…
(laughing) Yeah, I love that…
Hahaha, I know…
Well you know, it's just one of the effects, but we had been trying to get that effect on each album.
Is that a direct PORCUPINE TREE-influence?
Actually, it's more influenced by early BLACK SABBATH…albums like "Paranoid"…On that album they had a thing called a "Lesley", it's a rotating amplifier, and the speaker's rotating, and it makes this strange "wah-wah-wah-wah…" It is sort of a radio-voice or a telephone voice, but it reminds me of that Lesley-thing, and I always liked it because it's really 70s-sounding. The telephone-voice is not really 70s, but I like it anyway, so we just put it on there.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like with "Still Life"…you sort of "broke through" in a way with your general sound. The production came up in quality for starters, and you guys had always used Studio Fredman right?
No, the first two albums were recorded in Unisound, which was Dan Swanö's studio. But he shut it down, so we had to find another one, and around that time, AT THE GATES' "Slaughter Of The Soul" album was out, so we thought…we wanted to record in Sweden, but we didn't want to sound like a "Gothenburg-band", and they had this good production, and we recorded "My Arms…" there, and that one sounded really different because we had loads of problems at the time with the band. The two original guys from the first two albums left (Anders Nordin and Johan DeFarfalla), so we had this new drummer who was really insecure with our music, and we didn't have a rehearsal room or anything. Fredrik (Nordström) didn't know what we were about in the studio either, he didn't really know what to do with our music. I mean I like the album, because it's really aggressive, but if you listen to the sound production, it's really rough, which is COOL though…
Yeah, that's a lot of people's favorite OPETH album actually…
It's not like this album (pointing to my copy of "Blackwater Park"), this one is more well-rounded sounding…
It seems like on "My Arms Your Hearse," the production sounded a lot like "Morningrise", but on "Still Life" it sounds like all the levels came up on all the instruments, it's much more crisp sounding.
Well on "Still Life", we were a 4-piece (they had been a 3-piece, with Mikael Akerfeldt doing the bass on "My Arms…" - Gabe), we had been around for awhile, and all the guys in the band were adjusted to our sound. I think "Morningrise" and "My Arms…" sound totally different actually, because "Morningrise" is really clean and "My Arms…" is really rough, but that's also because the music changed. We didn't do many twin leads anymore, we did more chords and riffing. And on "Still Life", it's sort of a mix between "Morningrise" and "My Arms…" musically, it has both chords and leads to it, and we were much more secure as a band. Fredrik knew what we were about, so he could produce it more properly. But actually, on this album (referring again to "Blackwater…"), he just set the sounds. We engineered this one ourselves, except when we had Steven Wilson come in to help. Fredrik mixed the whole thing, but now he knows what we're all about.
This album sounds like you hit the nail on the head production-wise. I think it's the best album since…well…my personal favourite will always be "Morningrise", it'd be pretty hard to top that one if you ask me. I'm sorry, I'm old-school I guess…
That's funny, because some people think that "Morningrise" is too mellow, or too this or that, a lot of people say "My Arms…" is their favorite, and I think it's proof that we do good music all the time, or maybe we do the same level of BAD music all the time (laughs), but it's like people can kind of choose, with us, their favorite songs and albums, and I think that's cool!
I'm constantly seeing debates about OPETH and which album is the best one and all that…(note: I then went on to rant and rave about how great OPETH is in every way and blah blah blah, I won't go into it)…So do you all have regular jobs aside from the band?
We all have part time jobs. I just graduated from college before I came on this tour (can't remember what major he'd told me before the interview - Gabe), so I gotta find out, during the summer, WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITH MY LIFE? (laughs)
How many copies do you guys sell, on average, from album-to-album?
I think worldwide, we sell about 40,000, but the new album has sold like 70,000 already, so I think that's gonna help the other albums to sell more. I was surprised to hear about that. And I think "Still Life" is just over 40,000, I think.
Well, if it'd had immediate Stateside distribution, it probably would have sold just as much as "Blackwater…" damnit!
I think when people hear the new album, they will maybe go find the other albums, or I HOPE they do…
(after more childish complimenting) Another thing I'm always reading and hearing about is that OPETH will "never release a bad album".
Well, for US at least, we are never gonna put out a bad album, because when we record a new album, we don't care about what happened before. All of those albums, even this one, now belong in the past.
My favorite thing about OPETH is the softer, acoustic parts, while a lot of people like the heavy, aggressive parts. There's always a nice balance of those two aspects on each album, even on "My Arms…" which was more of a heavy album. Does there exist the possibility that OPETH will take the heavier path, to the exclusion of the softer parts, or vice-versa?
I don't think so. When we record a new album, like I said, all the other albums belong in the past, and it's just what we're all about at the MOMENT. But since we're fucking MUSIC lovers, all of us, we'll keep all those different things in there. I love acoustic guitars and clean vocals, but I like heavy riffing and stuff like that, and as long as we're still into all that, we're gonna put it all in there. The day we're sick of clean vocals, we're gonna abandon that, or acoustic guitars, or distortion or whatever! But I don't think that's gonna happen, because if you look at MY record collection, I've got fucking everything from Joni Mitchell to MORBID ANGEL. I love them all, so we try to put everything in there. That's what OPETH is about, good music. We have been doing it for such a long time, so now people know that we can do all these different kinds of music, and we blend it all into a song. That's what I like, we can do whatever we want, and as long as we like it, we're gonna do it. And about the "good album" thing, we never pay attention to what people are gonna think about it, we just record it for ourselves, and as long as we're satisfied with it, that's all that matters. And in that sense, yes, we are never gonna put out an album that WE are not satisfied with. Then again, people might hate it. But if we like it, fair enough. Maybe the day after that the record label will drop us, but what can you do, y'know…
(laughing) Well how IS Music For Nations treating the band so far?
They are the most professional label we've worked with by far! All of a sudden things are happening for us, we're getting endorsements, we're in the States doing a massive tour now, we've got lots of festivals this summer to play and all that. None of this happened on the last album. Well, NOTHING really happened on that album (laughs)…
No tours for that album either?
Well we were supposed to tour with MY DYING BRIDE, but since we changed record labels and all that, we couldn't do the tour.
So just out of curiosity, you guys were in Studio Fredman when SOILWORK were recording their album. How did the two bands work around each other?
Well, Studio Fredman is two studios actually. We recorded in the big one, because we had rented it out, and we also mixed the album there. But then SOILWORK recorded their stuff in the small studio and mixed it in the big studio after us, when we had left. It wasn't a problem, I actually prefer to be alone in the studio when recording without being bothered y'know. There was a pop band recording in there while we were there called (or what sounded like) NAZARENE STREET (but don't quote me on that - Gabe), and I didn't like them that much. But SOILWORK were really cool! So if every band is like SOILWORK, then it's good to have two bands in there I guess, because you can hang out and have fun! And Mikael sang some lines on their album…
Yeah I was gonna ask about that, did they ask Mikael do lend his vocal godliness, or did he kindly volunteer?
They asked him to come in, just for fun, and I think it was cool because we had already finished recording by the time they arrived, and they are really technical guitar players, man! They can play all of our stuff like that (snaps fingers)…
Yeah, they're a great band. But it's even been rumoured that Mikael sang almost ALL of the clean vocal parts on SOILWORK's album, but it was just on that ONE song right?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was just that one title track. Björn is singing on the other ones, and he has a good voice. He took some lessons I think, and he does a great job on the album I think! Mikael just came in one day to do the vocals for fun, and it turned out really good.
If you can answer this one, has Dan Swanö left the heavy metal scene pretty much, since I guess he's really close with the band I thought you might know about this rumour I keep hearing…
After he quit the studio, I think he kept some of the equipment to record stuff, and for example, Anders from KATATONIA recorded his DIABOLICAL MASQUERADE-stuff with him. But Dan is ALWAYS gonna continue recording stuff, cause he's a big music-lover too, but I think he's pretty much out of the Metal-scene. Then again he recorded the BLOODBATH thing with Mikael, Anders and Jonas…
Is there a BLOODBATH-album on the racks?
I'm not sure really, that's mainly Anders' thing, and he's gonna write everything and the guys are gonna go down and help record it. And they said to me, because I asked Mikael if they're gonna record a new one and he said no, probably not. But that was awhile ago, and they keep getting all these requests from people to do another one, so maybe they will do it.
So has anything been planned yet for the next OPETH album, or are you guys gonna take a break when you get done with all these shows and then go from there?
I guess after all the touring, we're gonna take a short break. Not a year-long break like METALLICA would do, but just a couple of weeks. Then we'll start writing stuff for a new album, but none of us really have the time to write ten riffs a day on the tour bus, I don't even have a guitar on the bus. Maybe this summer we'll do some writing. But when we start writing, it's a quick process. It'll take us like two months usually.
Do you and Mikael go to each other's houses often to share riffs and stuff before going into the studio?
We used to do that, but now on the last album, he wrote most of the material. I will usually meet him and give him a tape of my riffs…
I was really wondering about that, on a lot of your stuff, both guitars are playing parts that are somewhat "opposing"… They sound very different, but somehow they just fit together in the end, especially on the acoustic parts…
That comes about when we record. Because we usually have just one guitar part written, and then when we record everything else a couple of days later, we do lots of experimenting, and just add whatever we think sounds good.
OK, some closing questions now, I've kept you long enough. Do you favor the acoustic guitar when you write your stuff, or is it mostly written on electric?
When we wrote "Morningrise", and actually even "My Arms…", me and Mikael went to each other's places with acoustic guitars, and we wrote everything on acoustic guitars, even the heavy riffs, because if it sounds really heavy on the acoustic, you can be sure it'll be fucking HEAVY when you add distortion. On "Orchid", we wrote some riffs with the distortion, but after awhile it's just the distortion that sounds good and not the riff itself, so if you do it on acoustic guitar, you can be sure that when you play it on electric, with good production and everything, it'll sound REALLY good!
(after yet MORE random praise) Who are some of your personal guitar heroes?
The reason for me being in this business is probably Kirk Hammett.
Kirk Hammett?!?!?
Yeah, but you know that was when I was twelve years old and he was really fast, but when you listen to his solos today it's like shit. But he's the reason for me picking UP the guitar, as like a first influence. I think one of the better guitarists of all time in the Metal-genre is Eddie Van Halen. When you see all these guys doing the technical things, it's usually him who invented all of it. But then again I'm not really into guitar players who are really fast, because I think there are too many of them now. I prefer a guy who can, like, pick a tone and hit it, and it sounds good for like 30 seconds holding onto it, like Robin Trowers, the blues player, he's got the "feeling", and that's what I'm more into nowadays.
A lot of people think that your riff playing is totally technical, but I don't think OPETH is so much about "technicality"…
90% of our riffs are pretty simple actually. But there are some riffs that are hard. Some people think that we are technical gods or something, but a guy like Jeff Loomis, for example, that guy can outplay anything we play! But he's really technical so…
Five favourite albums at the moment?
(thinking) KATATONIA - "Last Fair Deal Gone Down", PORCUPINE TREE - "Lightbulb Sun", PORCUPINE TREE - "Stupid Dream"…Ummm…There's actually a band I listen to right now called BLACK HEART PROCESSION, it's like country…
(laughing) COUNTRY?!?!
Yeeeahhh, well it's not country exactly, it's like slow, singer/songwriter, painful type stuff, their album's called "Three", I really like it…and…uhhh…(long pause)…Oh yeah, SIXTEEN HORSEPOWER, an American band, they're like this religious country Rock-band, but they've got the "pain" and the "nerve". They are so religious, it almost sounds "evil", if you know what I mean (chuckling)…
And what about your Top 5 Death/Black Metal-albums of all time, just for shits & giggles?
METALLICA - "Master Of Puppets" (Death/Black???? - Alex)
MORBIG ANGEL - "Altars Of Madness"
MORBID ANGEL - "Blessed Are The Sick"
ENTOMBED - "Clandestine"
DEATH - "Leprosy"
Well…I am satisfied, it was a real pleasure for me Peter! Thank you for taking the time for this interview, really looking forward to the show…
Sure, no problem! Thank you as well. Hope you enjoy it…
How has the tour gone so far for you guys?
This tour is actually two tours. We did eight dates with AMORPHIS, in April, in the northeast United States and Canada. Then we did the same thing with NEVERMORE again. We started in Denver, and then we went up through Chicago, Toronto, and all those places. Now we're coming down south. And the tour is going really well, better than we ever expected…
How has it been, compared to Europe?
It's hard for me to compare, because we haven't done a proper tour in Europe since 1996, and that was for "Morningrise", and apparently at the time we weren't very well-known. We did the tour with CRADLE OF FILTH, and their audience is not our audience. It was a good tour, but…we're also gonna do a tour when we get back to Europe. But I think in the US, it's as big as "the whole" of Europe, and it differs from place to place, as it does in Europe. I mean, southern Europe is really crazy, but Sweden is really calm and "stiff". And it's sort of the same here in the US, although people here can be really crazy too…
OPETH's music is so varied. I know that, where I'm from, the audiences are into mainly the brutal stuff, the DEATH METAL y'know! But you guys cover the whole gamut with your music: the heaviness, the acoustics, the melodies, the brutality, everything… How do the audiences tend to respond to the "variety" in your music, in the live situation?
On stage, we try to do what you can hear on the albums, and we've just been doing it for such a long time. The acoustic parts we do with clean electric guitars, and there seems to be loads of die-hard fans coming to our shows, and they know what's going on. So we really don't baffle them at all! But I think people that haven't heard us might be…y'know…they come up to us 'HOW do you DO that?', and it's like 'we just turn the distortion off' (laughs)…But we've been doing it for so long! All these people ask us 'how do you pull off all of these long songs on stage?' but we've been doing it for over ten years now.
(chuckling) Yeah I'd always wondered about that myself, because my personal favorite OPETH album is "Morningrise", and that one's got the 10-minutes songs, and then there's "Black Rose Immortal" (we both laugh)…Do you guys ever cut songs short?
NO!
That surprises me, I was hoping you'd do a "Morningrise Medley"!
Well, people ask if we can play "Black Rose Immortal", and that would obviously be almost half the set! So maybe when we're headlining…but when we only have like 50-55 minutes, that's like half the set, so we just have to choose some of our "shorter" songs…
DAMN! Only 55 minutes?!?!
Yeah, 50-55 minutes on this tour, and that means five or six songs…
So what's the setlist for tonight?
Well I don't know how much time we'll have, but we try to cover all the albums.
So one song per album?
Yeah. But it depends, five minutes before we get up on stage we decide what to play…
(amazed) Well anyway…We've got a lot of Canadian readers, and I just wanted to ask, on their behalf, how was the general response to you all in Canada? I understand you drew some pretty massive crowds there!
We went to Toronto, Montreal, and a place called Rimouski. In Rimouski, we had a good show, but it seemed like none of the people there had even heard of us! But Toronto and Montreal was absolutely crazy! And actually for those two cities, we did them both with AMORPHIS AND NEVERMORE, so we did them twice in two weeks. And all four shows were great! So at the time, we were thinking "maybe we should just go between Montreal and Toronto every day, back and forth" (laughs)…
On a personal note, and I'm sure I can speak for many other people from North America who had to pay import price for "Still Life", it wasn't available here in the States for like over a year and a half, and to say that it pissed me off would be a drastic understatement! But now thanks to Koch Records, you seem to be doing well here with "Blackwater Park"…
Well we're on Music For Nations, and they don't have American distribution either, but they put some of their bands on Koch, us and CRADLE OF FILTH for example, and usually Koch is doing, like, World Wrestling Federation and Pokemon, stuff like that…
They ARE?!?!
Yeah! I was in their office, and I expected to see all of the gold-albums, like Music For Nations had, but they had all this WWF-stuff! It's like "what?"…But they do a really good job for us. The new album is the easiest to get I think, and "Still Life" seems to be the hardest.
Well, I've just been seeing it in stores, in special slipcases, but I had to pay like $23 for the friggin' thing!
That's insane, because I think if Peaceville could just pull themselves together and get some Stateside distribution…
Well I've just now started seeing some MY DYING BRIDE and DARKTHRONE re-issues by them lately, so at least they're doing SOMETHING now…
Really! But it's way late now…because "Still Life" has been out for like two years in Europe. We released it in October '99 in Europe…
Yeah…But anyway, I've got another question you may not want to answer: rumour has it that you guys don't rehearse before going into the studio, or at least you don't rehearse more than 2-3 times. Do you have, like, certain parts written beforehand, or whole songs arranged, before going into the studio?
What we do is, like we have the basics done, the basic riffs, drumming, and the basic arrangements I guess, but no lyrics are written, not many vocal lines are written. We like to spend loads of time in the studio, just experimenting…
How long did "Blackwater Park" take?
Two months. And it's pretty boring to be in the studio for two months, but then again, the first album ("Orchid") we recorded in 12 days. We'd been rehearsing the songs for three years, and knew exactly what to do, so we just went in and "ch-ch-ch-ch-ch…". But then again, at the end of the day, there were no surprises for us! On the new album, when I got back home it was like "oh yeah, wow, I don't remember that part!"…
(laughing) Yeah I would think it would be more interesting for YOU to listen back to an album in that sense, because it's more "spontaneous" sounding, as you guys are known for with your music, the spontaneity is what I think really catches the listener, even on "Orchid" I get that feeling…
It's exciting for me, but it's DARING, too, because you're not sure! I mean in the studio we try to work until we're satisfied, and I'm really satisfied with all five albums. And when we left the studio for this one, I was satisfied too. But when I listened to it at home, there were all these surprises, and sometimes it happens like "ohhh, that's really good!" I just think it's another way of recording things, and actually, for "Still Life" we rehearsed twice, and we thought that was not enough, so we rehearsed THREE times for this one!
(laughing) Oh yeah, you gotta put in that extra one I guess…
But then again, you know, someone told me that if you don't rehearse that much, it's fresher when you PLAY it. I don't know, maybe that's true…
Another thing I've found with OPETH is that it seems like certain songs could perhaps be TEN songs in one, with all the dynamic changes, at least in the eyes, or rather, EARS, of most listeners. But then you guys do songs like "Harvest" on the new album, which seems like a borderline "radio-friendly" song, with the octaved clean vocals and general laid-back vibe. How did that song come about?
That one was written beforehand. It was one of the few that was pretty much totally written before we went in to record, including the vocal lines…
That's what I thought.
Yeah, on each album we try to "expand". Like on "Morningrise" we did the "To Bid You Farewell" ballad, that was a risky thing to do, because at the time, no one really did ballads. We got criticism for that, but after doing it, we could do whatever we wanted on every album. So now we can have "soft pop" songs on every album (laughing). It's just about good music for me, I don't care about tags or anything. If people call us Death Metal and they put one of THOSE songs on, if they don't like it…
(interrupting) Man, I hear people calling you all "Progressive Death Metal", "Symphonic Blackened Metal", even "Forest Metal", but I just say "they're just OPETH!"
Well, yeah, it's all about music, that's pretty much it.
That's what separates you guys from almost every band I think, the whole "genre"-thing doesn't matter when it comes to your music!
Thank you!
Anyway…Steve Wilson from PORCUPINE TREE came in for 12 days to help you all with the recording of "Blackwater Park" correct?
Well when he arrived we had recorded all the basic structures like the rhythm guitars, bass, and drums. His help was with the vocal lines and the guitar leads mostly, with SOUNDS basically, because he's really good with SOUNDS, and we wanted to experiment a bit with vocal sounds.
Yeah I can hear at some parts, with the vocals…Some people have actually dubbed them as "cell phone" vocals…
(laughing) Yeah, I love that…
Hahaha, I know…
Well you know, it's just one of the effects, but we had been trying to get that effect on each album.
Is that a direct PORCUPINE TREE-influence?
Actually, it's more influenced by early BLACK SABBATH…albums like "Paranoid"…On that album they had a thing called a "Lesley", it's a rotating amplifier, and the speaker's rotating, and it makes this strange "wah-wah-wah-wah…" It is sort of a radio-voice or a telephone voice, but it reminds me of that Lesley-thing, and I always liked it because it's really 70s-sounding. The telephone-voice is not really 70s, but I like it anyway, so we just put it on there.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like with "Still Life"…you sort of "broke through" in a way with your general sound. The production came up in quality for starters, and you guys had always used Studio Fredman right?
No, the first two albums were recorded in Unisound, which was Dan Swanö's studio. But he shut it down, so we had to find another one, and around that time, AT THE GATES' "Slaughter Of The Soul" album was out, so we thought…we wanted to record in Sweden, but we didn't want to sound like a "Gothenburg-band", and they had this good production, and we recorded "My Arms…" there, and that one sounded really different because we had loads of problems at the time with the band. The two original guys from the first two albums left (Anders Nordin and Johan DeFarfalla), so we had this new drummer who was really insecure with our music, and we didn't have a rehearsal room or anything. Fredrik (Nordström) didn't know what we were about in the studio either, he didn't really know what to do with our music. I mean I like the album, because it's really aggressive, but if you listen to the sound production, it's really rough, which is COOL though…
Yeah, that's a lot of people's favorite OPETH album actually…
It's not like this album (pointing to my copy of "Blackwater Park"), this one is more well-rounded sounding…
It seems like on "My Arms Your Hearse," the production sounded a lot like "Morningrise", but on "Still Life" it sounds like all the levels came up on all the instruments, it's much more crisp sounding.
Well on "Still Life", we were a 4-piece (they had been a 3-piece, with Mikael Akerfeldt doing the bass on "My Arms…" - Gabe), we had been around for awhile, and all the guys in the band were adjusted to our sound. I think "Morningrise" and "My Arms…" sound totally different actually, because "Morningrise" is really clean and "My Arms…" is really rough, but that's also because the music changed. We didn't do many twin leads anymore, we did more chords and riffing. And on "Still Life", it's sort of a mix between "Morningrise" and "My Arms…" musically, it has both chords and leads to it, and we were much more secure as a band. Fredrik knew what we were about, so he could produce it more properly. But actually, on this album (referring again to "Blackwater…"), he just set the sounds. We engineered this one ourselves, except when we had Steven Wilson come in to help. Fredrik mixed the whole thing, but now he knows what we're all about.
This album sounds like you hit the nail on the head production-wise. I think it's the best album since…well…my personal favourite will always be "Morningrise", it'd be pretty hard to top that one if you ask me. I'm sorry, I'm old-school I guess…
That's funny, because some people think that "Morningrise" is too mellow, or too this or that, a lot of people say "My Arms…" is their favorite, and I think it's proof that we do good music all the time, or maybe we do the same level of BAD music all the time (laughs), but it's like people can kind of choose, with us, their favorite songs and albums, and I think that's cool!
I'm constantly seeing debates about OPETH and which album is the best one and all that…(note: I then went on to rant and rave about how great OPETH is in every way and blah blah blah, I won't go into it)…So do you all have regular jobs aside from the band?
We all have part time jobs. I just graduated from college before I came on this tour (can't remember what major he'd told me before the interview - Gabe), so I gotta find out, during the summer, WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITH MY LIFE? (laughs)
How many copies do you guys sell, on average, from album-to-album?
I think worldwide, we sell about 40,000, but the new album has sold like 70,000 already, so I think that's gonna help the other albums to sell more. I was surprised to hear about that. And I think "Still Life" is just over 40,000, I think.
Well, if it'd had immediate Stateside distribution, it probably would have sold just as much as "Blackwater…" damnit!
I think when people hear the new album, they will maybe go find the other albums, or I HOPE they do…
(after more childish complimenting) Another thing I'm always reading and hearing about is that OPETH will "never release a bad album".
Well, for US at least, we are never gonna put out a bad album, because when we record a new album, we don't care about what happened before. All of those albums, even this one, now belong in the past.
My favorite thing about OPETH is the softer, acoustic parts, while a lot of people like the heavy, aggressive parts. There's always a nice balance of those two aspects on each album, even on "My Arms…" which was more of a heavy album. Does there exist the possibility that OPETH will take the heavier path, to the exclusion of the softer parts, or vice-versa?
I don't think so. When we record a new album, like I said, all the other albums belong in the past, and it's just what we're all about at the MOMENT. But since we're fucking MUSIC lovers, all of us, we'll keep all those different things in there. I love acoustic guitars and clean vocals, but I like heavy riffing and stuff like that, and as long as we're still into all that, we're gonna put it all in there. The day we're sick of clean vocals, we're gonna abandon that, or acoustic guitars, or distortion or whatever! But I don't think that's gonna happen, because if you look at MY record collection, I've got fucking everything from Joni Mitchell to MORBID ANGEL. I love them all, so we try to put everything in there. That's what OPETH is about, good music. We have been doing it for such a long time, so now people know that we can do all these different kinds of music, and we blend it all into a song. That's what I like, we can do whatever we want, and as long as we like it, we're gonna do it. And about the "good album" thing, we never pay attention to what people are gonna think about it, we just record it for ourselves, and as long as we're satisfied with it, that's all that matters. And in that sense, yes, we are never gonna put out an album that WE are not satisfied with. Then again, people might hate it. But if we like it, fair enough. Maybe the day after that the record label will drop us, but what can you do, y'know…
(laughing) Well how IS Music For Nations treating the band so far?
They are the most professional label we've worked with by far! All of a sudden things are happening for us, we're getting endorsements, we're in the States doing a massive tour now, we've got lots of festivals this summer to play and all that. None of this happened on the last album. Well, NOTHING really happened on that album (laughs)…
No tours for that album either?
Well we were supposed to tour with MY DYING BRIDE, but since we changed record labels and all that, we couldn't do the tour.
So just out of curiosity, you guys were in Studio Fredman when SOILWORK were recording their album. How did the two bands work around each other?
Well, Studio Fredman is two studios actually. We recorded in the big one, because we had rented it out, and we also mixed the album there. But then SOILWORK recorded their stuff in the small studio and mixed it in the big studio after us, when we had left. It wasn't a problem, I actually prefer to be alone in the studio when recording without being bothered y'know. There was a pop band recording in there while we were there called (or what sounded like) NAZARENE STREET (but don't quote me on that - Gabe), and I didn't like them that much. But SOILWORK were really cool! So if every band is like SOILWORK, then it's good to have two bands in there I guess, because you can hang out and have fun! And Mikael sang some lines on their album…
Yeah I was gonna ask about that, did they ask Mikael do lend his vocal godliness, or did he kindly volunteer?
They asked him to come in, just for fun, and I think it was cool because we had already finished recording by the time they arrived, and they are really technical guitar players, man! They can play all of our stuff like that (snaps fingers)…
Yeah, they're a great band. But it's even been rumoured that Mikael sang almost ALL of the clean vocal parts on SOILWORK's album, but it was just on that ONE song right?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was just that one title track. Björn is singing on the other ones, and he has a good voice. He took some lessons I think, and he does a great job on the album I think! Mikael just came in one day to do the vocals for fun, and it turned out really good.
If you can answer this one, has Dan Swanö left the heavy metal scene pretty much, since I guess he's really close with the band I thought you might know about this rumour I keep hearing…
After he quit the studio, I think he kept some of the equipment to record stuff, and for example, Anders from KATATONIA recorded his DIABOLICAL MASQUERADE-stuff with him. But Dan is ALWAYS gonna continue recording stuff, cause he's a big music-lover too, but I think he's pretty much out of the Metal-scene. Then again he recorded the BLOODBATH thing with Mikael, Anders and Jonas…
Is there a BLOODBATH-album on the racks?
I'm not sure really, that's mainly Anders' thing, and he's gonna write everything and the guys are gonna go down and help record it. And they said to me, because I asked Mikael if they're gonna record a new one and he said no, probably not. But that was awhile ago, and they keep getting all these requests from people to do another one, so maybe they will do it.
So has anything been planned yet for the next OPETH album, or are you guys gonna take a break when you get done with all these shows and then go from there?
I guess after all the touring, we're gonna take a short break. Not a year-long break like METALLICA would do, but just a couple of weeks. Then we'll start writing stuff for a new album, but none of us really have the time to write ten riffs a day on the tour bus, I don't even have a guitar on the bus. Maybe this summer we'll do some writing. But when we start writing, it's a quick process. It'll take us like two months usually.
Do you and Mikael go to each other's houses often to share riffs and stuff before going into the studio?
We used to do that, but now on the last album, he wrote most of the material. I will usually meet him and give him a tape of my riffs…
I was really wondering about that, on a lot of your stuff, both guitars are playing parts that are somewhat "opposing"… They sound very different, but somehow they just fit together in the end, especially on the acoustic parts…
That comes about when we record. Because we usually have just one guitar part written, and then when we record everything else a couple of days later, we do lots of experimenting, and just add whatever we think sounds good.
OK, some closing questions now, I've kept you long enough. Do you favor the acoustic guitar when you write your stuff, or is it mostly written on electric?
When we wrote "Morningrise", and actually even "My Arms…", me and Mikael went to each other's places with acoustic guitars, and we wrote everything on acoustic guitars, even the heavy riffs, because if it sounds really heavy on the acoustic, you can be sure it'll be fucking HEAVY when you add distortion. On "Orchid", we wrote some riffs with the distortion, but after awhile it's just the distortion that sounds good and not the riff itself, so if you do it on acoustic guitar, you can be sure that when you play it on electric, with good production and everything, it'll sound REALLY good!
(after yet MORE random praise) Who are some of your personal guitar heroes?
The reason for me being in this business is probably Kirk Hammett.
Kirk Hammett?!?!?
Yeah, but you know that was when I was twelve years old and he was really fast, but when you listen to his solos today it's like shit. But he's the reason for me picking UP the guitar, as like a first influence. I think one of the better guitarists of all time in the Metal-genre is Eddie Van Halen. When you see all these guys doing the technical things, it's usually him who invented all of it. But then again I'm not really into guitar players who are really fast, because I think there are too many of them now. I prefer a guy who can, like, pick a tone and hit it, and it sounds good for like 30 seconds holding onto it, like Robin Trowers, the blues player, he's got the "feeling", and that's what I'm more into nowadays.
A lot of people think that your riff playing is totally technical, but I don't think OPETH is so much about "technicality"…
90% of our riffs are pretty simple actually. But there are some riffs that are hard. Some people think that we are technical gods or something, but a guy like Jeff Loomis, for example, that guy can outplay anything we play! But he's really technical so…
Five favourite albums at the moment?
(thinking) KATATONIA - "Last Fair Deal Gone Down", PORCUPINE TREE - "Lightbulb Sun", PORCUPINE TREE - "Stupid Dream"…Ummm…There's actually a band I listen to right now called BLACK HEART PROCESSION, it's like country…
(laughing) COUNTRY?!?!
Yeeeahhh, well it's not country exactly, it's like slow, singer/songwriter, painful type stuff, their album's called "Three", I really like it…and…uhhh…(long pause)…Oh yeah, SIXTEEN HORSEPOWER, an American band, they're like this religious country Rock-band, but they've got the "pain" and the "nerve". They are so religious, it almost sounds "evil", if you know what I mean (chuckling)…
And what about your Top 5 Death/Black Metal-albums of all time, just for shits & giggles?
METALLICA - "Master Of Puppets" (Death/Black???? - Alex)
MORBIG ANGEL - "Altars Of Madness"
MORBID ANGEL - "Blessed Are The Sick"
ENTOMBED - "Clandestine"
DEATH - "Leprosy"
Well…I am satisfied, it was a real pleasure for me Peter! Thank you for taking the time for this interview, really looking forward to the show…
Sure, no problem! Thank you as well. Hope you enjoy it…
Sunday, 13 May 2001
Mikael Åkerfeldt - Interview by Adrian Bromley (13 May 2001)
While Opeth's singer/songwriter/guitarist Mikael Akerfeldt is excited about the buzz that his band's latest offering _Blackwater Park_ [reviewed in this issue] is receiving, his love for his music is greater than what fans or critics have to say: good or bad.
"It is great to hear all of that, but to be honest with you I stopped caring about all of that a long time ago", Akerfeldt starts. "I don't really care about reviews anymore or what people have to say. It's great to read a great review or be nominated for the album of year, but at the end of the day it doesn't change much for me. Even if this was a super underground release, it would still be a great album for me."
"This record, like many other records, is a big task for me to take on", says Akerfeldt. "When I go into making a record I try not to think about how the record will sound or what we will do differently or how the guitar will sound. The way I make music is the way it has always been. I just sit down and play guitar every day and just gather together a bunch of riffs and arrangements and then try to piece it all together. I only try to come up with cool songs and not a master plan of how certain songs will sound on an album. This just happens for us. We don't really know how the album will sound until it has been mastered and finished because we experiment so much in the studio. When we go in to make a record we just let the music flow. That's it."
About his work with _Blackwater Park_, Akerfeldt says: "I am very proud of everything on this record. I am proud of all the songs. I am proud of the vocal lines that we did on the song "The Drapery Falls" and also the overall production of the record. We worked with Steven Wilson this time and he did a lot of great things to help the album sound good." He adds, "It is hard for me to say if this is the ultimate Opeth album, but right now it feels like it is the best one."
"The studio is a very inspirational environment", Akerfeldt admits. "The only thing I wanted to make sure of when we wrote and recorded this album was that we liked it. That was the only thing that mattered. We wrote a few songs together and went in to record them. It wasn't that tough at all. People think that we rehearse like one hundred times a day or go sit out in the forest and play guitars, but it isn't like that. Like any guitar player, I get the urge to play every day and sometimes I come up with some cool riffs and ideas."
"We are willing to try a lot of things within our music, but we don't want to stray too far from our sound", says Akerfeldt about the band's love of experimenting with each recording. "I think ever since we found the sound we did on the first record, we have gone on to try and develop it over the years. We will continue to try and develop it. Opeth's sound covers a lot of ground and we can go in many different directions and still be Opeth. I think we are going to try and milk this sound of Opeth until there is nothing left. I think we have a long way to go. I think we will be able to come up with some cool albums in the future."
Does Akerfeldt ever listen to older Opeth records when making an album? "No", he sharply juts in. "I want to keep a clear head. If I repeat something I have already done, I don't want to know about it till afterwards. We basically concentrate on what we have before us in the studio and take it from there. The past is pretty much gone when we enter the studio for a new record."
Having seen the band two times in the past month, live the band (the rest of Opeth is rounded out by guitarist Peter Lindgren, drummer Martin Lopez and bassist Martin Mendez) make sure to cover all of Opeth's work, from the early days of 1995's _Orchid_ onto 1998's _My Arms, Your Hearse_ [CoC #32] and onto the new material. What does Akerfeldt think about playing the older songs with the newer ones?
"I think those songs are very representative of what we sounded like seven years ago. Playing those songs live is a bit different because of the way they were done. We don't think "oh, this will sound cheesy, we better not play it". We just bring it into the mix of things and crank it out. I don't feel the contrast between those songs. The listener in the audience may. I'm just there to have a good time live and have some diversity with our set."
One of the most rewarding factors about the new releases is that it marks the first time the band has solid distribution in North America via Koch Records. Is he excited about the deal to get the band's name out even more now?
"It feels real good", says the singer. "We've never had proper distribution in North America till now and the album is everywhere. Those at Koch are doing a great job at promoting us and they are one of the key reasons why we are touring over here right now. This is a big deal for us -- we are playing fifty dates in North America. After this tour we will go back to Europe and play festivals and wrap it all up with a European tour in the Fall. After that, we will stop this and take some time off till we put out the next album, which should be late next year."
What are you going to do with your time off?
"I have some other stuff I want to do music wise with some friends of mine."
Really? Does it sound different from Opeth? Who else is involved?
"The band consists of myself, the keyboard player from Spiritual Beggars and a famous guitar player from over here in Sweden named Renneh. We want to do something together, and I have written some songs, but we have yet to play together. We are going to record some material soon. Once that is all done and finished, I will then begin assembling new material for the next Opeth album."
"I've always wanted to do this. I just have urge to work with other musicians", confides Akerfeldt about the need to work on the new, yet unnamed project. "I really want to work with a keyboard player because I love the vintage sounds of keyboard work. It'll be very dark, gloomy '70s stuff. It'll be very mellow. The keyboardist can sing as well, so we plan to have these Simon & Garfunkle harmony lines, but not your run-of-the-mill vocal lines. This will be a lot of fun for me to break away from Opeth."
As most fans know, Opeth's music is very hard to categorize. While the band plays metal music, with intense mood swings and melodic overtones, everyone has their own take on what Opeth is about. Even Akerfeldt does. And because of that, he finds that to be strong characteristic about the band's music.
"People call us a metal band and I am happy with that. Metal to me is a very wide term. It is not just 100% speed all of the time. To me, metal is ranging from The Beatles onward", he explains. "It just sounds ridiculous for me to say something like Opeth plays symphonic extreme progressive gothic epic metal -- that just sounds like too much."
Akerfeldt ends, "We are not a run-of-the-mill type of death metal band. We play metal music. I like the fact that we can go about doing what we want and have fun creating the sounds with Opeth. It seems the fans do too."
"It is great to hear all of that, but to be honest with you I stopped caring about all of that a long time ago", Akerfeldt starts. "I don't really care about reviews anymore or what people have to say. It's great to read a great review or be nominated for the album of year, but at the end of the day it doesn't change much for me. Even if this was a super underground release, it would still be a great album for me."
"This record, like many other records, is a big task for me to take on", says Akerfeldt. "When I go into making a record I try not to think about how the record will sound or what we will do differently or how the guitar will sound. The way I make music is the way it has always been. I just sit down and play guitar every day and just gather together a bunch of riffs and arrangements and then try to piece it all together. I only try to come up with cool songs and not a master plan of how certain songs will sound on an album. This just happens for us. We don't really know how the album will sound until it has been mastered and finished because we experiment so much in the studio. When we go in to make a record we just let the music flow. That's it."
About his work with _Blackwater Park_, Akerfeldt says: "I am very proud of everything on this record. I am proud of all the songs. I am proud of the vocal lines that we did on the song "The Drapery Falls" and also the overall production of the record. We worked with Steven Wilson this time and he did a lot of great things to help the album sound good." He adds, "It is hard for me to say if this is the ultimate Opeth album, but right now it feels like it is the best one."
"The studio is a very inspirational environment", Akerfeldt admits. "The only thing I wanted to make sure of when we wrote and recorded this album was that we liked it. That was the only thing that mattered. We wrote a few songs together and went in to record them. It wasn't that tough at all. People think that we rehearse like one hundred times a day or go sit out in the forest and play guitars, but it isn't like that. Like any guitar player, I get the urge to play every day and sometimes I come up with some cool riffs and ideas."
"We are willing to try a lot of things within our music, but we don't want to stray too far from our sound", says Akerfeldt about the band's love of experimenting with each recording. "I think ever since we found the sound we did on the first record, we have gone on to try and develop it over the years. We will continue to try and develop it. Opeth's sound covers a lot of ground and we can go in many different directions and still be Opeth. I think we are going to try and milk this sound of Opeth until there is nothing left. I think we have a long way to go. I think we will be able to come up with some cool albums in the future."
Does Akerfeldt ever listen to older Opeth records when making an album? "No", he sharply juts in. "I want to keep a clear head. If I repeat something I have already done, I don't want to know about it till afterwards. We basically concentrate on what we have before us in the studio and take it from there. The past is pretty much gone when we enter the studio for a new record."
Having seen the band two times in the past month, live the band (the rest of Opeth is rounded out by guitarist Peter Lindgren, drummer Martin Lopez and bassist Martin Mendez) make sure to cover all of Opeth's work, from the early days of 1995's _Orchid_ onto 1998's _My Arms, Your Hearse_ [CoC #32] and onto the new material. What does Akerfeldt think about playing the older songs with the newer ones?
"I think those songs are very representative of what we sounded like seven years ago. Playing those songs live is a bit different because of the way they were done. We don't think "oh, this will sound cheesy, we better not play it". We just bring it into the mix of things and crank it out. I don't feel the contrast between those songs. The listener in the audience may. I'm just there to have a good time live and have some diversity with our set."
One of the most rewarding factors about the new releases is that it marks the first time the band has solid distribution in North America via Koch Records. Is he excited about the deal to get the band's name out even more now?
"It feels real good", says the singer. "We've never had proper distribution in North America till now and the album is everywhere. Those at Koch are doing a great job at promoting us and they are one of the key reasons why we are touring over here right now. This is a big deal for us -- we are playing fifty dates in North America. After this tour we will go back to Europe and play festivals and wrap it all up with a European tour in the Fall. After that, we will stop this and take some time off till we put out the next album, which should be late next year."
What are you going to do with your time off?
"I have some other stuff I want to do music wise with some friends of mine."
Really? Does it sound different from Opeth? Who else is involved?
"The band consists of myself, the keyboard player from Spiritual Beggars and a famous guitar player from over here in Sweden named Renneh. We want to do something together, and I have written some songs, but we have yet to play together. We are going to record some material soon. Once that is all done and finished, I will then begin assembling new material for the next Opeth album."
"I've always wanted to do this. I just have urge to work with other musicians", confides Akerfeldt about the need to work on the new, yet unnamed project. "I really want to work with a keyboard player because I love the vintage sounds of keyboard work. It'll be very dark, gloomy '70s stuff. It'll be very mellow. The keyboardist can sing as well, so we plan to have these Simon & Garfunkle harmony lines, but not your run-of-the-mill vocal lines. This will be a lot of fun for me to break away from Opeth."
As most fans know, Opeth's music is very hard to categorize. While the band plays metal music, with intense mood swings and melodic overtones, everyone has their own take on what Opeth is about. Even Akerfeldt does. And because of that, he finds that to be strong characteristic about the band's music.
"People call us a metal band and I am happy with that. Metal to me is a very wide term. It is not just 100% speed all of the time. To me, metal is ranging from The Beatles onward", he explains. "It just sounds ridiculous for me to say something like Opeth plays symphonic extreme progressive gothic epic metal -- that just sounds like too much."
Akerfeldt ends, "We are not a run-of-the-mill type of death metal band. We play metal music. I like the fact that we can go about doing what we want and have fun creating the sounds with Opeth. It seems the fans do too."
Friday, 4 May 2001
Peter Lindgren - Interview by Dan/Sam (04 May 2001)
Dan: Is this your first time in America?
Peter: "No, we actually played Milluakee Metalfest last year, that was the first time and it was great."
Dan: How have the crowd reactions been so far?
Peter: "Excellent, better than we ever could have expected actually. It's the first time we've done a massive tour in the United States, we're sort of overwhelmed by the reaction we get. I mean, we're just ordinary guys we're not fuckin' Marylin Manson or anything."
Dan: What country are you guys from? (Editor's note: hey, I already knew this, don't look at me!)
Peter: "Sweden"
Dan: That is definately a breeding ground for alot of cool bands...
Peter: "For some reason we have this death metal tradition from the early 90's, Entombed, and Dismember, and all those bands and then came the wave of gothic metal like At The Gates."
Dan: On the heavier side though, you guys seem to have a definate black metal influence, but everything else seems like old music and progressive rock...
Peter: "yeah, we're influenced by the 70's progessive rock bands...
Sam: Stoner metal...
Peter: "We're influenced by everything, Stevie Wonder is one good artist too. We're not a black metal band at all. We listen to every kind of music and I don't like putting tags on music because I mean death metal is a genre but it's pretty narrow and narrow minded too I think. Many bands just listen to that kind of music and we listen to everything. When you listen to different kinds of music maybe subconciously you can put it into your own music without even knowing it. I think that's a good way to break boundries."
Peter: "No, we actually played Milluakee Metalfest last year, that was the first time and it was great."
Dan: How have the crowd reactions been so far?
Peter: "Excellent, better than we ever could have expected actually. It's the first time we've done a massive tour in the United States, we're sort of overwhelmed by the reaction we get. I mean, we're just ordinary guys we're not fuckin' Marylin Manson or anything."
Dan: What country are you guys from? (Editor's note: hey, I already knew this, don't look at me!)
Peter: "Sweden"
Dan: That is definately a breeding ground for alot of cool bands...
Peter: "For some reason we have this death metal tradition from the early 90's, Entombed, and Dismember, and all those bands and then came the wave of gothic metal like At The Gates."
Dan: On the heavier side though, you guys seem to have a definate black metal influence, but everything else seems like old music and progressive rock...
Peter: "yeah, we're influenced by the 70's progessive rock bands...
Sam: Stoner metal...
Peter: "We're influenced by everything, Stevie Wonder is one good artist too. We're not a black metal band at all. We listen to every kind of music and I don't like putting tags on music because I mean death metal is a genre but it's pretty narrow and narrow minded too I think. Many bands just listen to that kind of music and we listen to everything. When you listen to different kinds of music maybe subconciously you can put it into your own music without even knowing it. I think that's a good way to break boundries."
Saturday, 7 April 2001
Mikael Åkerfeldt - Interview by Waspman (07 Apr 2001)
Hi Mikael, thanks for doing this interview! Tell me about the tour so far.
We just started out. Y'know, last night will be our second gig.
You guys have never played in North America before.
No, not in Canada. We played in Milwaukee last year, that's our only American show so far.
How did the New Jersey MetalFest go last night?
Not bad, but not good either. The sound was pretty awful and we didn't hear ourselves. The monitors on stage were pretty much not working. But the crowd was pretty good, I hope somebody enjoyed it! (laughs). Y'know, it's our first show for this tour so it's going to get better. We didn't make too many fuckups! (laughs)
(laughs) That's good! (laughs). How was the crowd response for the show?
It was good, y'know, they were clapping their hands. It was seated and I don't like that. When you're in a metal band you want people to stand up and have a good time. Then again, I know myself, if I had been at a show with seats I would have taken them out! (laughs) You can't blame anyone but it's more fun playing for an audience that's standing up and you can tell if they're enjoying themselves.
Are there any plans for a live album? Perhaps after this tour?
I don't know actually. I can't see it coming. Our next thing with Opeth is that we're going to put out a video. 'Cause we filmed the entire recording of BLACKWATER PARK.
Cool!
We've also got interview with all the band members as well as out producer, Steven Wilson. We've also got some live footage 'cause we played with Steven's band Porcupine Tree in Sweden a couple of weeks back and that show was filmed so we're gonna through that in there.
That'll be a very cool package! Will it be on video and DVD?
I don't know the format right now. The guy who's doing it is an old friend of mine.
I know that'll go over really well because a lot of people on the website have been asking about Opeth live footage.
I think especially in the States and all of North America people seem to be very into the video thing, while in Europe it's not a big thing. Here it seems to be mandatory! (laughs)
(laughs) I guess it's 'cause here we don't have the opportunity to see all of these great European bands. Another questions is do you find it a challenge to translate such long and complex material to the live stage? For example Metallica has long refused to play most of their songs off of AND JUSTICE... because it's too hard.
Well y'know, when you have a fourteen minute song it's a lot easier to have a couple of fuckups than if you're playing a three minute song. (At this point the keyboard tech began soundcheck, to which Mikael joked: "Sounds like Rainbow is playing!) Anyway, it's not as hard as people think because for us it's just the music that we do, y'know, it's not harder for us. As I said, having a song with that kind of length, we do make fuckups every now and then.
What are you listening to these days?
Not much! Right now, I've bought a shitload of records before I came over here. I haven't had time to listen to them. Much of the stuff I've never heard of before That's what I'm listening to: stuff I've never heard of! (laughs).
Do you listen to anything "special" to inspire you to write when you're trying to come up with a new album?
It's hard to say. I listen to many different kinds of music, so I think when I decided to sit down and write some stuff myself, all of these influences come together...but it's hard to put your finger on a single band. I still listen to the old heavy metal bands, y'know, like Judas Priest. I used to have times where I only listened to Priest! (laughs)
Since you brought them up, what do you think the new album is going to be like?
I've no idea! I haven't heard Jugulator, only a couple of tracks.
Speaking of your influences, what inspires you to write such bleak music?
Dunno! (laughs) It's just what I like. I've always been into metal, and metal for me is not happy music. It's not that it has to be sad but its aggression and everything. And we just put in so many different influences. For me, heavy metal music doesn't have to be fast all the time, I think people are wrong when they complain that we're "soft" or something, because they're own favorite bands, like Judas Priest have a few ballads. We put these influences together, also with my kind of interest in the darker kind of music, it just happens from itself I think.
You mentioned how people think that you're too soft at some points, but I think that a lot of people that are into Opeth love the fact that you've got such diverse dynamics. What role do you think dynamics has in the Opeth sound?
That's everything. I think we would be nothing...The fact that we have so many different influences in our songs and music will put some dynamics in there. For me, it's the most important part of our sound.
Speaking specifically of BLACKWATER PARK, the first thing that struck me was the album cover. What made you go with Travis Smith?
Well, we had used him for STILL LIFE, and we were so happy with that cover we decided to work with him again. I just asked him if he was interested and he was - he's a big Opeth fan. I gave him pretty much free hands to do whatever he wanted. Y'know, I gave him some hints on what I wanted and he knew the album title and everything so he just sent me many pictures and we chose this one because it was the best one.
So you had the album title in mind before you recorded the album?
Yes, it's the first time we've done that actually.
How did you come with the title?
There's a German band called Blackwater Park. They're an old band that is one of the ones that I'm collecting. They put out a pretty rare album called DARK BOX in 1971 that's pretty fucking hard to find, but I've got it! (laughs) I just like the name of the band and thought that it could suit an Opeth album, Y'know, we've done that in the past, basically stealing album titles from other bands. (laughs)
(laughs) Did you take STILL LIFE from the Iron Maiden song?
STILL LIFE, there's so many examples of that...y'know, Rolling Stones, Fates Warning, there's a band called Still Life and of course the Iron Maiden track, so y'know, there's so many. I like it.
BLACKWATER PARK is obviously a logical progression for the Opeth sound, but where do you personally see it standing in the lineage of all your albums?
I don't know, For me, it's just the newest album. I don't wanna skip any of our albums, I think their all in a way equally good. At the time that we were doing them that's what we were about. I think that every album we've had in the past have been essential for BLACKWATER PARK to happen. Right now, it's my favorite album, maybe because it's the most recent one. I think we made a difference this time, like we always tried to do. This time we worked with a producer that we haven't done for a long time, so that was something new. A big thing for us, working with a guy like Steven Wilson.
He's from Porcupine Tree? How did you get into contact with him?
He sent me an email actually. I've been a big Porcupine Tree fan for years and he did an interview with a French journalist that I know and he gave Steven a copy of STILL LIFE and my email address. He emailed me and said he thought STILL LIFE was the best heavy metal he's ever heard and I was blown away! I met him in London and asked him if he was interested in producing the new album.
You mentioned that BLACKWATER PARK is your favorite Opeth album right now, but what album would you recommend to a fan who was hearing Opeth for the first time?
I think that it's pretty hard because the first two albums were a bit different than the last three. I think if you hear BLACKWATER PARK you will be interested in what we were doing before that one and you would hear a connection between all of the albums if you go backwards. It's very hard to say. I think they're all representative 'cause we were there. This is our stuff and this is what we do...fuck the rest! (laughs)
(laughs) I was listening to the album today and I noticed that the guitar work in "Bleak" kind of reminds me of what Dan Swano was doing in his Odyssey project.
I haven't heard Odyssey actually. I usually have all of the stuff that Dan does because he sends it to me, but I haven't heard that one. That song was more inspired by some ethnic music that the two Martins were listening to. They live in the ghetto of Stockholm and have friends from many different countries there and they got records from some artists that we've never heard of. For example, some artists from Lebanon. I instantly got inspired and wrote some riffs.
Are you still in contact with Dan?
Yeah! We don't talk that much because we live about two hours from each other so we don't meet up too often. We talk on the phone once in awhile but not too often, maybe a couple of times per year.
Going back to the music itself, the softer, mellower parts of the songs are very haunting, making them seem almost as aggressive in their own way as the heavy parts.
I think you're right. That's what many people don't hear when they listen to us. Many people who are into the old school death metal, they can't hear differences in the music unless it is so clear to them. I think the mellow parts of Opeth areas aggressive in a way but it's a very subtle way because it's always very depressive.
(Running out of time...) I have so many more questions! Just to dive into a little bit of history here, is there any chance that Opeth might return to the jazzy/fusion style of bass playing the Johan brought to the band?
No, because Johan is not in the band anymore. People talk a lot about his bass playing on MORNINGRISE, but personally I didn't really like the bass on that album. I think that Johan, because he wasn't satisfied with the bass on ORCHID, he wanted to have more space in the band. I think that he got too much space and didn't use the bass as it was meant to be, he used it as a solo instrument and I wasn't happy with the bass sound. He was a very, very good bass player but Martin is as good. Right now we want more or less a bass sound, not a solo sound.
(Being hurried by label rep...) Two quick questions: Who is Melinda?
(laughs) No one. She's a fictional character. I took her from this song by Uriah Heep called "Come Away Melinda".
I'll leave it open to you - any final comments that you'd like to give?
Thanks for the interview! Check out BLACKWATER PARK!
We just started out. Y'know, last night will be our second gig.
You guys have never played in North America before.
No, not in Canada. We played in Milwaukee last year, that's our only American show so far.
How did the New Jersey MetalFest go last night?
Not bad, but not good either. The sound was pretty awful and we didn't hear ourselves. The monitors on stage were pretty much not working. But the crowd was pretty good, I hope somebody enjoyed it! (laughs). Y'know, it's our first show for this tour so it's going to get better. We didn't make too many fuckups! (laughs)
(laughs) That's good! (laughs). How was the crowd response for the show?
It was good, y'know, they were clapping their hands. It was seated and I don't like that. When you're in a metal band you want people to stand up and have a good time. Then again, I know myself, if I had been at a show with seats I would have taken them out! (laughs) You can't blame anyone but it's more fun playing for an audience that's standing up and you can tell if they're enjoying themselves.
Are there any plans for a live album? Perhaps after this tour?
I don't know actually. I can't see it coming. Our next thing with Opeth is that we're going to put out a video. 'Cause we filmed the entire recording of BLACKWATER PARK.
Cool!
We've also got interview with all the band members as well as out producer, Steven Wilson. We've also got some live footage 'cause we played with Steven's band Porcupine Tree in Sweden a couple of weeks back and that show was filmed so we're gonna through that in there.
That'll be a very cool package! Will it be on video and DVD?
I don't know the format right now. The guy who's doing it is an old friend of mine.
I know that'll go over really well because a lot of people on the website have been asking about Opeth live footage.
I think especially in the States and all of North America people seem to be very into the video thing, while in Europe it's not a big thing. Here it seems to be mandatory! (laughs)
(laughs) I guess it's 'cause here we don't have the opportunity to see all of these great European bands. Another questions is do you find it a challenge to translate such long and complex material to the live stage? For example Metallica has long refused to play most of their songs off of AND JUSTICE... because it's too hard.
Well y'know, when you have a fourteen minute song it's a lot easier to have a couple of fuckups than if you're playing a three minute song. (At this point the keyboard tech began soundcheck, to which Mikael joked: "Sounds like Rainbow is playing!) Anyway, it's not as hard as people think because for us it's just the music that we do, y'know, it's not harder for us. As I said, having a song with that kind of length, we do make fuckups every now and then.
What are you listening to these days?
Not much! Right now, I've bought a shitload of records before I came over here. I haven't had time to listen to them. Much of the stuff I've never heard of before That's what I'm listening to: stuff I've never heard of! (laughs).
Do you listen to anything "special" to inspire you to write when you're trying to come up with a new album?
It's hard to say. I listen to many different kinds of music, so I think when I decided to sit down and write some stuff myself, all of these influences come together...but it's hard to put your finger on a single band. I still listen to the old heavy metal bands, y'know, like Judas Priest. I used to have times where I only listened to Priest! (laughs)
Since you brought them up, what do you think the new album is going to be like?
I've no idea! I haven't heard Jugulator, only a couple of tracks.
Speaking of your influences, what inspires you to write such bleak music?
Dunno! (laughs) It's just what I like. I've always been into metal, and metal for me is not happy music. It's not that it has to be sad but its aggression and everything. And we just put in so many different influences. For me, heavy metal music doesn't have to be fast all the time, I think people are wrong when they complain that we're "soft" or something, because they're own favorite bands, like Judas Priest have a few ballads. We put these influences together, also with my kind of interest in the darker kind of music, it just happens from itself I think.
You mentioned how people think that you're too soft at some points, but I think that a lot of people that are into Opeth love the fact that you've got such diverse dynamics. What role do you think dynamics has in the Opeth sound?
That's everything. I think we would be nothing...The fact that we have so many different influences in our songs and music will put some dynamics in there. For me, it's the most important part of our sound.
Speaking specifically of BLACKWATER PARK, the first thing that struck me was the album cover. What made you go with Travis Smith?
Well, we had used him for STILL LIFE, and we were so happy with that cover we decided to work with him again. I just asked him if he was interested and he was - he's a big Opeth fan. I gave him pretty much free hands to do whatever he wanted. Y'know, I gave him some hints on what I wanted and he knew the album title and everything so he just sent me many pictures and we chose this one because it was the best one.
So you had the album title in mind before you recorded the album?
Yes, it's the first time we've done that actually.
How did you come with the title?
There's a German band called Blackwater Park. They're an old band that is one of the ones that I'm collecting. They put out a pretty rare album called DARK BOX in 1971 that's pretty fucking hard to find, but I've got it! (laughs) I just like the name of the band and thought that it could suit an Opeth album, Y'know, we've done that in the past, basically stealing album titles from other bands. (laughs)
(laughs) Did you take STILL LIFE from the Iron Maiden song?
STILL LIFE, there's so many examples of that...y'know, Rolling Stones, Fates Warning, there's a band called Still Life and of course the Iron Maiden track, so y'know, there's so many. I like it.
BLACKWATER PARK is obviously a logical progression for the Opeth sound, but where do you personally see it standing in the lineage of all your albums?
I don't know, For me, it's just the newest album. I don't wanna skip any of our albums, I think their all in a way equally good. At the time that we were doing them that's what we were about. I think that every album we've had in the past have been essential for BLACKWATER PARK to happen. Right now, it's my favorite album, maybe because it's the most recent one. I think we made a difference this time, like we always tried to do. This time we worked with a producer that we haven't done for a long time, so that was something new. A big thing for us, working with a guy like Steven Wilson.
He's from Porcupine Tree? How did you get into contact with him?
He sent me an email actually. I've been a big Porcupine Tree fan for years and he did an interview with a French journalist that I know and he gave Steven a copy of STILL LIFE and my email address. He emailed me and said he thought STILL LIFE was the best heavy metal he's ever heard and I was blown away! I met him in London and asked him if he was interested in producing the new album.
You mentioned that BLACKWATER PARK is your favorite Opeth album right now, but what album would you recommend to a fan who was hearing Opeth for the first time?
I think that it's pretty hard because the first two albums were a bit different than the last three. I think if you hear BLACKWATER PARK you will be interested in what we were doing before that one and you would hear a connection between all of the albums if you go backwards. It's very hard to say. I think they're all representative 'cause we were there. This is our stuff and this is what we do...fuck the rest! (laughs)
(laughs) I was listening to the album today and I noticed that the guitar work in "Bleak" kind of reminds me of what Dan Swano was doing in his Odyssey project.
I haven't heard Odyssey actually. I usually have all of the stuff that Dan does because he sends it to me, but I haven't heard that one. That song was more inspired by some ethnic music that the two Martins were listening to. They live in the ghetto of Stockholm and have friends from many different countries there and they got records from some artists that we've never heard of. For example, some artists from Lebanon. I instantly got inspired and wrote some riffs.
Are you still in contact with Dan?
Yeah! We don't talk that much because we live about two hours from each other so we don't meet up too often. We talk on the phone once in awhile but not too often, maybe a couple of times per year.
Going back to the music itself, the softer, mellower parts of the songs are very haunting, making them seem almost as aggressive in their own way as the heavy parts.
I think you're right. That's what many people don't hear when they listen to us. Many people who are into the old school death metal, they can't hear differences in the music unless it is so clear to them. I think the mellow parts of Opeth areas aggressive in a way but it's a very subtle way because it's always very depressive.
(Running out of time...) I have so many more questions! Just to dive into a little bit of history here, is there any chance that Opeth might return to the jazzy/fusion style of bass playing the Johan brought to the band?
No, because Johan is not in the band anymore. People talk a lot about his bass playing on MORNINGRISE, but personally I didn't really like the bass on that album. I think that Johan, because he wasn't satisfied with the bass on ORCHID, he wanted to have more space in the band. I think that he got too much space and didn't use the bass as it was meant to be, he used it as a solo instrument and I wasn't happy with the bass sound. He was a very, very good bass player but Martin is as good. Right now we want more or less a bass sound, not a solo sound.
(Being hurried by label rep...) Two quick questions: Who is Melinda?
(laughs) No one. She's a fictional character. I took her from this song by Uriah Heep called "Come Away Melinda".
I'll leave it open to you - any final comments that you'd like to give?
Thanks for the interview! Check out BLACKWATER PARK!
Saturday, 10 March 2001
Mikael Åkerfeldt - Interview by Jeff Kent (10 Mar 2001)
One of the benefits of getting 'older' is that more of the bands today have followed a parallel musical path to mine. Opeth is a perfect example as they loved Iron Maiden early on and then moved into more Progressive genres; always trying to capture their new influences in the music. On the verge of releasing their fifth album, Blackwater Park, vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Mikael Akerfeldt took the time to call me from his native Sweden. As you'll see, I may be new to the band, but I've fallen for them and I've fallen hard.
You have the upper hand here because I'm a newfound Opeth fan. I'm a clean slate. Be gentle.
[Laughs] That's nice.
I can't stop listening to Blackwater Park and it makes me mad at myself for not taking everyone's advice to listen to Opeth earlier.
That's cool, I'm glad.
I'm working my way backward through your back catalog now.
You're probably going to like at least Still Life, the album before this one and the one before that.
Do you see yourself progressing in a definite direction or are you just going where the music takes you?
Depends, for the last couple of albums we haven't done much touring so I've had a lot of time in between recordings to write therefore we put out an album each year. I pretty much let the music take whatever it wants to go. I don't think much about it I just write; we use the stuff that's good.
It sounds like most of it is riff writing, adding riffs together to create these almost epic songs.
Some songs are put together like that where I didn't know I had two sections that would go well together until I actually tried it. Some parts I wrote entire arrangements and songs at once.
My favorite part of the album is that twisted dissonant little acoustic guitar melody at the beginning of 'Bleak'.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I love that stuff as well, that disharmonic stuff, especially with an acoustic guitar. I'm very fond of that.
Did working with Steven Wilson add a lot to the record? Since I'm really only familiar with the last two albums, I can hear a distinct difference between the two.
Well Steven Wilson is a big idol of ours both as a producer and with his band Porcupine Tree, I've been listening to them for a pretty long time now. To work together with him made us maximize our performance because we really wanted to impress him. He'd never produced a Metal band before and it was a big experience for him, so I think he was a bit nervous as well. He produced all the vocals and lead guitars with us. He also helped out writing vocal harmonies and stuff like that, we also used him because we knew he was very good with sound. We'd never really experimented a lot with sound for the guitars, but we knew what he was capable of. Every idea we had we asked him if he could do it and he fixed everything as well as coming in with some weird ideas himself, which we liked and ended up using.
Was he familiar with your music going into the project?
Yeah, he was the one who contacted me actually. He got a copy of Still Life when he did an interview with a journalist who's a friend of mine. My friend knew that I was a big Porcupine Tree fan, so he gave him the Still Life album and my email address. So then I got an email from Steven which said he thought it was one of the best albums he'd heard. Then we started talking about doing an album together and I met him in London to ask him if he wanted to produce what would be Blackwater Park and he said he would.
He plays all of the acoustic piano on the album, right?
Yes.
I think that adds a whole new dimension.
It does. We've used piano before on our third album My Arms Your Hearse, but I was doing it all and I'm not a piano player in the same way as Steven. He can pretty much play every instrument. We wanted to add something special; also to get him featured on the album, we got him singing a couple of lines as well and he played one guitar solo.
Do you think he'll go back to Porcupine Tree having learned something from Opeth?
Oh yeah. We were doing press in London where he lives and he invited us to dinner and he played a couple of new demos of Porcupine Tree, and it was Metal. He said, 'can you hear the Opeth influence?' I was pretty blown away.
That's excellent.
Yeah, we're turning more into Porcupine Tree and they're turning more into Opeth, so we're thinking about changing names [laughs].
Everything ends up blending together into one thing simply called Music.
Well people love to categorize and they ask me what they should call Opeth's music and I tell them I'd like it to be categorized under 'Good Music'.
In describing your music I tend to use the word beautiful a lot, which not everyone understands after they've heard you. There's definitely that full rich sound.
I'm glad you think so.
It sounds like your clean vocal style is improving each album. Is that something that you've worked on, or does it just happen with experience?
I don't practice anything and we don't rehearse. I never do any kind of practicing between recordings. I just kind of talk myself into getting better since the last album.
Do you foresee going to a completely clean vocal style?
I don't know, I think what makes Opeth is the combination of the two vocal styles.
The whole album is an exercise in dynamics.
Yes and that's what we're all about. We've always been about that and it's one of the most important parts of our music. That goes for the vocal styles as well. I think it creates some kind of special dynamic because the screaming is one of the most extreme styles there is and if you combine it with the normal singing you can create some terrific dynamics there?
Is it hard to play a whole song like that live when you have that many shifts? Does it take away from your energy flow in the song?
It's not hard for us, we're used to it now. We've done five albums and even a couple of gigs so we're used to that. I'd say it's the same for us as it is for any other band playing their stuff. It's so normal for us that we never really stop to consider what we're doing.
Most people don't realize that you can have quiet parts that are just as intense as the loud and heavy parts. It's not only about volume.
Yeah, people don't really think in those terms. You're pretty much the first person that ever understood it.
A lot of bands are starting to do that. A band like Pain of Salvation does a similar thing.
I've never heard them. A lot of people are telling me about them, but I've never heard them; I should have to check them out.
So you're coming back to America this year.
Yeah, pretty much for the entire months of April and May we're going to be in the States and Canada.
Are you looking forward to it? I know last year you only got to play the one show in Milwaukee.
Yeah, we're looking forward to it very much actually. We're looking forward to the whole touring thing because we haven't really toured since '96. So it's been five years since our last tour. It's going to be an interesting experience for us, not only because we haven't done it in a while, but we'll just enjoy being in America. It's always one of those countries that you want to see properly. You laugh, but it's like that for Scandinavians. All the cities we're going to have those fucking classic names like Dallas, it's going to be amazing.
Since it's been so long, do you know what bands are out there that would go well with your style?
I have no idea. Pretty much we don't care what bands we play with as long as we get our stage time. Obviously if it's bands we like personally it's going to better. I don't know any of the guys in Nevermore, I got a couple of emails from the singer; I don't know him personally, but I like their music so that's a good start.
They do a lot with dynamics too, which is good because many bands today just try to be as extreme as they can for as long as they can.
How many times can you hear that? Fast music is not exciting, I think with dynamics you can be way more extreme. If you just play fast all the time you can't tell exactly how fast it is.
Have you always liked those dissonant harmonies?
Yeah, I'm very interested in that. I was a huge Voivod fan a couple of years back; they had many different chords the same with Coroner, I love Coroner. Basically the strange choice of notes came from like Led Zeppelin III.
Today it seems like more bands are combining influences rather than emulating one specific band or sound and sometime they're sounds that you wouldn't expect to work together.
I think there are a lot of bands out there who have dropped what they thought they wanted to do and just started experimenting a bit more. That's what makes a band grow I think.
If it results in albums like Blackwater Park then I'm all for it.
[Laughs] Yeah, me too.
The cover is equally suited to the music.
Yeah, it's nice. I love the cover. It's Travis Smith who did it again, he did the Still Life album as well and he did the new Nevermore. He's done a lot of covers and I think he's the best artwork guy around right now. He's like a' painter [laughs].
He's a 'real' artist, not just some guy who does album covers.
He should be very well known I think. He's starting to some recognition and he's got a lot of jobs through this.
Do you think that after the acoustic guitar and the piano you might progress to using strings?
That'd be interesting, but it would pretty much have us unable to perform the songs live unless we had the other musicians with us. We're such a small band that we couldn't afford to travel with an orchestra or something, it's just too expensive. But it would be very interesting to do an album like that. I may do some of that in my little side project where I'll be able to use instruments I've never used before. It's like an itching I have to create something apart from metal.
Will it just be you?
No, it's going to be a keyboards and by that I mean Mellotrons and Fender Rhodes, stuff like that, the guy from Spiritual Beggars [Per Wiberg]. Me and him and a guitar player who's been in a couple of Swedish bands that are totally obscure. He's one of my favorite guitar players of all time.
More of an ambient record?
It's going to be very mellow, but very, very dark and very if I may say so, beautiful. It's going to be like Simon and Garfunkel type harmony vocals.
I guess that'll give you a chance to work on your clean vocals.
Yeah and it's an itching I have. I've been doing five Metal albums now and I just want to try this out and play with different musicians as well.
What kind of expectations do you have for the tour?
I think we're pretty much going to see all the fans who have been with us since the beginning and maybe some new people who have heard our name and heard good things. But I think the bigger part of the audiences will be fans that have been aching to see us for a long time, six or seven years. Since we've never done a tour of the States I think all of our fans are going to show up of course, but hopefully we can snitch one or two from the Nevermore crowd as well. At the one gig we did in Milwaukee the response from the crowd was just amazing, so I have high expectations for the tour.
It's a big country.
It is, and I'm sure we're going to have our ups and downs at shows, but I wasn't to see the States as a tourist as well. It's been a dream of mine to rent a car or something and drive maybe from the East Coast to the West Coast with my best friend Jonathan [Renske], who is the lead singer from Katatonia. We want to go down to those redneck places just see everything. Maybe meet the Amish people [laughs].
I don't know that they're familiar with your music, but you never know.
No, I don't think so either, and no you never know, but I doubt it.
Judging from the studio diaries at your website, it looks like you try and have all the songs ready, at least in your head. Doe sit take a long time to get them to come out the way you want with little or no rehearsal?
I pretty much have all the basic structures written before we go into the studio and I'll send out tapes of demos for the rest of the guys. We leave a lot of space though for adding things in the studio because it's more interesting to experiment in the studio, which we've done for the last few albums, it's where you come up with some of the best things I think. It's a very inspirational place to work. I also wanted the other guys to come in and contribute with their own style since they don't write the material. Also when you come out of the studio you have a fresh product. Not only for the fans, but also for yourself as a listener as well. When we did the first album we were so well rehearsed that when we listened to the finished album there were no surprises in there for us. Now we can listen to Blackwater Park on the drive back home to Stockholm and say, 'ohhh, I forgot about that riff, that was pretty cool'.
How much of it gets done in one take? Are there parts that are improvised on the spot and end up on the record?
Some of it, but most of it is written and then we record it. We can come up with something and then half a minute later we've put it on tape. We hung out in the mixing room doing the lead guitars and thought about what we should add like certain harmonies or a strange sound effect. We tried everything out and when we found something that was good, we used it.
So you don't have any limits as to what you'll use to get a specific sound.
Not at all.
A lot of Metal bands feel limited by what they can and can't use.
We've never felt that we had any boundaries, if we like it we just do it, we don't care.
How did you get that cool guitar sound at the end of 'Bleak'?
I LOVE that. That's Steven who came up with it. Basically I think we told him that we wanted the guitar to kind of fall to pieces. He just put that sound on it. We were laughing so hard because it's so ugly. Then again it has a nice effect with the ugliest guitar sound on the album coming in contact with the next song 'Harvest', which opens up with a beautiful acoustic guitar.
The other thing that would have been cool would have been to use it as the last track on the album and let it go on seemingly forever. I could listen to that ugly sound for a long time; there's actually a lot of music in it.
Yeah, but we had the song 'Blackwater Park' and we wanted it to be the last track. It's the classic way to have the last track be the title track.
Do you see whole albums almost as suites that work together, even if they're not concept albums?
Kind of, yeah. I feel that every song on there is equally important. Everything that we record ends up on the album, so we want to have it one hundred percent perfect.
So instead of having fifteen four-minute songs, you have six or seven ten-minute songs.
We don't want to spend time working on songs that we know from the start are not as good as the others. If I have a basic song structure that I'm not a hundred percent satisfied with I make it one hundred percent in the studio with the 'spices'. We know what we like and what we don't like.
Some of the best moments on the album are those shifts between two sections that don't sound like they should work.
Yes, that's what we enjoy doing, putting together stuff that shouldn't go together.
Do you have any Classical influences?
Not really, I listen occasionally to Classical music, but not that often.
Do you listen to any of the contemporary Scandinavian Folk music?
Not straight Folk music, it has to be some kind of Folk Rock.
Bands like Hoven Droven and Hedningarna?
Yeah, they're pretty cool. We have tons of bands like that in Sweden that mix modern music with more traditional Folk music.
I was thinking back to the idea of using strings and an instrument like a Cello is perfect for your sound.
We've been thinking about that for a long time, but I don't want to over do stuff. There was a time when we did the second album where I was in an almost pretentious state of mind and I wanted to have everything on there. But I think it was a good choice to keep it subtle. We always wanted to have the four of us in the band doing everything on the album and we never really used any guests until Steven Wilson for this album. We're still a Metal band. We never used keyboard or anything to make certain 'sounds'. I think the guitar is very much an underrated instrument because people think they're done exploring the guitar. I think there's so much you can do with one that's never been done before. People ask me all the time who's playing the keyboards and I tell them there are none, it's all done with guitars. You can experiment so much with a guitar that it's not necessary to use keyboards. It's easy to create some kind of atmosphere by turning on a keyboard, punching a button and playing a chord. We've never been about disguising our music with some kind of cheap atmosphere.
Do you ever get a really cool guitar sound by accident and then find you're unable to recreate it later?
Yeah, we record at night sometimes and I record all my solos alone. I wanted to switch the sound a bit, so I went over to the amplifier and turned the knobs a bit, but then I couldn't remember what the initial settings were, the sound I was supposed to have, so I got some strange sounds from there. Just a simple thing like turning the volume down on the guitar. I had full distortion for doing solos, but then I turned the volume down on the guitar and did the solo for 'Harvest' with that sound.
Do you prefer to stick to simple changes like that or do you use a lot of effects?
We use effects, but simple changes are still very effective if done right. Steven came up with a lot of the effects, so I don't know what they were. He was using Pro Tools, the software'thing, I don't know anything about it, but he came up with some really cool sound with some plug-ins he used.
Are there guitarists you listen to who continue to surprise you? Guys like Bill Frisell the Jazz guitarist or Robert Fripp?
I don't like when people experiment too much, I still want to hear the guitarists themselves. I like Fripp and what he's done in the past and some of what he's doing now, but I prefer hard guitar players. One of my favorite guitarists aside from that Swedish guy that I'll be working with is Andy Latimer, the guitarist in Camel. This guy called Jerry Donahue who is a Bluegrass guitarist basically; he's doing demonstrations for Modern Guitarist I think and he used to be in Fairport Convention.
Do you know who Bill Frisell is?
I've heard the name.
He has a very distinct sound. You can tell it's him by one note.
Ok, that's what I like.
Have you heard the band Naked City?
Yeah, oh yeah! Is that him?! Oh shit! I've been listening to them, the guy who ran our first record label, candlelight, he was a very big fan of Naked City and he played us some of their stuff and it's just amazing. I'm not sure if I think it's good, but I'm absorbed in it. It's almost funny because it's so extreme. They had one song where they put in like thirty different music styles in one song it went from Jazz to Grind Metal.
Mhm, its called 'Speedfreaks', and I've seen them do it live.
You must have been laughing.
It was great and the funny part is that most of them are very unassuming, almost boring looking.
And they're a bit older. Are they American?
Yeah.
Shit yeah, I was laughing when I first heard it because I didn't know if it was a joke or not, but I could definitely tell that they knew their instruments. I have to check it out more now. I came to think of another guitar player that I really, really like. Ritchie Blackmore. He's got the tone, you can hear instantly it's him.
Do you ever just jam?
No, we rehearse so rarely that we can't waste time doing that. Which is a shame because I love it. It's also hard to do when you have two guitarists. I'm more of a jam guy than Peter is, but I've had some jams with the two Martins. It was funny, but it always turned into some kind of blues because when you jam that's really the only thing you can do and enjoy. It wouldn't be fun to jam Grind Core stuff.
Do you stretch any of the songs out when you play them live?
No, we don't jam anything live. Our songs are pretty much jammed and ready. It's something I regret a bit because as I said I love to do it. We have a track called 'Credence' that has a jam ending, so we might do something with that, since we're going to play it live.
Do you have a setlist for the upcoming tour already?
Yeah, we're gonna go for the safe cards. Since we rehearse so rarely we're going to go with the stuff we know by heart and not try something we haven't played in ten years. We'll do our standard set with the new songs added in.
How much of Blackwater Park will be included?
I think two songs. We want to cover every album and since we only have an hour onstage we want to do at least one song from each album. It's not only a Blackwater Park tour it's more like a OrchidMorningriseMyArmsYourHearseStillLifeBlackwaterPark tour.
It's the Opeth tour.
That's what people want to see and we want to give it to them.
You have the upper hand here because I'm a newfound Opeth fan. I'm a clean slate. Be gentle.
[Laughs] That's nice.
I can't stop listening to Blackwater Park and it makes me mad at myself for not taking everyone's advice to listen to Opeth earlier.
That's cool, I'm glad.
I'm working my way backward through your back catalog now.
You're probably going to like at least Still Life, the album before this one and the one before that.
Do you see yourself progressing in a definite direction or are you just going where the music takes you?
Depends, for the last couple of albums we haven't done much touring so I've had a lot of time in between recordings to write therefore we put out an album each year. I pretty much let the music take whatever it wants to go. I don't think much about it I just write; we use the stuff that's good.
It sounds like most of it is riff writing, adding riffs together to create these almost epic songs.
Some songs are put together like that where I didn't know I had two sections that would go well together until I actually tried it. Some parts I wrote entire arrangements and songs at once.
My favorite part of the album is that twisted dissonant little acoustic guitar melody at the beginning of 'Bleak'.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I love that stuff as well, that disharmonic stuff, especially with an acoustic guitar. I'm very fond of that.
Well Steven Wilson is a big idol of ours both as a producer and with his band Porcupine Tree, I've been listening to them for a pretty long time now. To work together with him made us maximize our performance because we really wanted to impress him. He'd never produced a Metal band before and it was a big experience for him, so I think he was a bit nervous as well. He produced all the vocals and lead guitars with us. He also helped out writing vocal harmonies and stuff like that, we also used him because we knew he was very good with sound. We'd never really experimented a lot with sound for the guitars, but we knew what he was capable of. Every idea we had we asked him if he could do it and he fixed everything as well as coming in with some weird ideas himself, which we liked and ended up using.
Was he familiar with your music going into the project?
Yeah, he was the one who contacted me actually. He got a copy of Still Life when he did an interview with a journalist who's a friend of mine. My friend knew that I was a big Porcupine Tree fan, so he gave him the Still Life album and my email address. So then I got an email from Steven which said he thought it was one of the best albums he'd heard. Then we started talking about doing an album together and I met him in London to ask him if he wanted to produce what would be Blackwater Park and he said he would.
He plays all of the acoustic piano on the album, right?
Yes.
I think that adds a whole new dimension.
It does. We've used piano before on our third album My Arms Your Hearse, but I was doing it all and I'm not a piano player in the same way as Steven. He can pretty much play every instrument. We wanted to add something special; also to get him featured on the album, we got him singing a couple of lines as well and he played one guitar solo.
Do you think he'll go back to Porcupine Tree having learned something from Opeth?
Oh yeah. We were doing press in London where he lives and he invited us to dinner and he played a couple of new demos of Porcupine Tree, and it was Metal. He said, 'can you hear the Opeth influence?' I was pretty blown away.
That's excellent.
Yeah, we're turning more into Porcupine Tree and they're turning more into Opeth, so we're thinking about changing names [laughs].
Everything ends up blending together into one thing simply called Music.
Well people love to categorize and they ask me what they should call Opeth's music and I tell them I'd like it to be categorized under 'Good Music'.
In describing your music I tend to use the word beautiful a lot, which not everyone understands after they've heard you. There's definitely that full rich sound.
I'm glad you think so.
It sounds like your clean vocal style is improving each album. Is that something that you've worked on, or does it just happen with experience?
I don't practice anything and we don't rehearse. I never do any kind of practicing between recordings. I just kind of talk myself into getting better since the last album.
Do you foresee going to a completely clean vocal style?
I don't know, I think what makes Opeth is the combination of the two vocal styles.
The whole album is an exercise in dynamics.
Yes and that's what we're all about. We've always been about that and it's one of the most important parts of our music. That goes for the vocal styles as well. I think it creates some kind of special dynamic because the screaming is one of the most extreme styles there is and if you combine it with the normal singing you can create some terrific dynamics there?
Is it hard to play a whole song like that live when you have that many shifts? Does it take away from your energy flow in the song?
It's not hard for us, we're used to it now. We've done five albums and even a couple of gigs so we're used to that. I'd say it's the same for us as it is for any other band playing their stuff. It's so normal for us that we never really stop to consider what we're doing.
Most people don't realize that you can have quiet parts that are just as intense as the loud and heavy parts. It's not only about volume.
Yeah, people don't really think in those terms. You're pretty much the first person that ever understood it.
A lot of bands are starting to do that. A band like Pain of Salvation does a similar thing.
I've never heard them. A lot of people are telling me about them, but I've never heard them; I should have to check them out.
So you're coming back to America this year.
Yeah, pretty much for the entire months of April and May we're going to be in the States and Canada.
Are you looking forward to it? I know last year you only got to play the one show in Milwaukee.
Yeah, we're looking forward to it very much actually. We're looking forward to the whole touring thing because we haven't really toured since '96. So it's been five years since our last tour. It's going to be an interesting experience for us, not only because we haven't done it in a while, but we'll just enjoy being in America. It's always one of those countries that you want to see properly. You laugh, but it's like that for Scandinavians. All the cities we're going to have those fucking classic names like Dallas, it's going to be amazing.
Since it's been so long, do you know what bands are out there that would go well with your style?
I have no idea. Pretty much we don't care what bands we play with as long as we get our stage time. Obviously if it's bands we like personally it's going to better. I don't know any of the guys in Nevermore, I got a couple of emails from the singer; I don't know him personally, but I like their music so that's a good start.
They do a lot with dynamics too, which is good because many bands today just try to be as extreme as they can for as long as they can.
How many times can you hear that? Fast music is not exciting, I think with dynamics you can be way more extreme. If you just play fast all the time you can't tell exactly how fast it is.
Have you always liked those dissonant harmonies?
Yeah, I'm very interested in that. I was a huge Voivod fan a couple of years back; they had many different chords the same with Coroner, I love Coroner. Basically the strange choice of notes came from like Led Zeppelin III.
Today it seems like more bands are combining influences rather than emulating one specific band or sound and sometime they're sounds that you wouldn't expect to work together.
I think there are a lot of bands out there who have dropped what they thought they wanted to do and just started experimenting a bit more. That's what makes a band grow I think.
If it results in albums like Blackwater Park then I'm all for it.
[Laughs] Yeah, me too.
The cover is equally suited to the music.
Yeah, it's nice. I love the cover. It's Travis Smith who did it again, he did the Still Life album as well and he did the new Nevermore. He's done a lot of covers and I think he's the best artwork guy around right now. He's like a' painter [laughs].
He's a 'real' artist, not just some guy who does album covers.
He should be very well known I think. He's starting to some recognition and he's got a lot of jobs through this.
Do you think that after the acoustic guitar and the piano you might progress to using strings?
That'd be interesting, but it would pretty much have us unable to perform the songs live unless we had the other musicians with us. We're such a small band that we couldn't afford to travel with an orchestra or something, it's just too expensive. But it would be very interesting to do an album like that. I may do some of that in my little side project where I'll be able to use instruments I've never used before. It's like an itching I have to create something apart from metal.
Will it just be you?
No, it's going to be a keyboards and by that I mean Mellotrons and Fender Rhodes, stuff like that, the guy from Spiritual Beggars [Per Wiberg]. Me and him and a guitar player who's been in a couple of Swedish bands that are totally obscure. He's one of my favorite guitar players of all time.
More of an ambient record?
It's going to be very mellow, but very, very dark and very if I may say so, beautiful. It's going to be like Simon and Garfunkel type harmony vocals.
I guess that'll give you a chance to work on your clean vocals.
Yeah and it's an itching I have. I've been doing five Metal albums now and I just want to try this out and play with different musicians as well.
What kind of expectations do you have for the tour?
I think we're pretty much going to see all the fans who have been with us since the beginning and maybe some new people who have heard our name and heard good things. But I think the bigger part of the audiences will be fans that have been aching to see us for a long time, six or seven years. Since we've never done a tour of the States I think all of our fans are going to show up of course, but hopefully we can snitch one or two from the Nevermore crowd as well. At the one gig we did in Milwaukee the response from the crowd was just amazing, so I have high expectations for the tour.
It's a big country.
It is, and I'm sure we're going to have our ups and downs at shows, but I wasn't to see the States as a tourist as well. It's been a dream of mine to rent a car or something and drive maybe from the East Coast to the West Coast with my best friend Jonathan [Renske], who is the lead singer from Katatonia. We want to go down to those redneck places just see everything. Maybe meet the Amish people [laughs].
I don't know that they're familiar with your music, but you never know.
No, I don't think so either, and no you never know, but I doubt it.
Judging from the studio diaries at your website, it looks like you try and have all the songs ready, at least in your head. Doe sit take a long time to get them to come out the way you want with little or no rehearsal?
I pretty much have all the basic structures written before we go into the studio and I'll send out tapes of demos for the rest of the guys. We leave a lot of space though for adding things in the studio because it's more interesting to experiment in the studio, which we've done for the last few albums, it's where you come up with some of the best things I think. It's a very inspirational place to work. I also wanted the other guys to come in and contribute with their own style since they don't write the material. Also when you come out of the studio you have a fresh product. Not only for the fans, but also for yourself as a listener as well. When we did the first album we were so well rehearsed that when we listened to the finished album there were no surprises in there for us. Now we can listen to Blackwater Park on the drive back home to Stockholm and say, 'ohhh, I forgot about that riff, that was pretty cool'.
How much of it gets done in one take? Are there parts that are improvised on the spot and end up on the record?
Some of it, but most of it is written and then we record it. We can come up with something and then half a minute later we've put it on tape. We hung out in the mixing room doing the lead guitars and thought about what we should add like certain harmonies or a strange sound effect. We tried everything out and when we found something that was good, we used it.
So you don't have any limits as to what you'll use to get a specific sound.
Not at all.
A lot of Metal bands feel limited by what they can and can't use.
We've never felt that we had any boundaries, if we like it we just do it, we don't care.
How did you get that cool guitar sound at the end of 'Bleak'?
I LOVE that. That's Steven who came up with it. Basically I think we told him that we wanted the guitar to kind of fall to pieces. He just put that sound on it. We were laughing so hard because it's so ugly. Then again it has a nice effect with the ugliest guitar sound on the album coming in contact with the next song 'Harvest', which opens up with a beautiful acoustic guitar.
The other thing that would have been cool would have been to use it as the last track on the album and let it go on seemingly forever. I could listen to that ugly sound for a long time; there's actually a lot of music in it.
Yeah, but we had the song 'Blackwater Park' and we wanted it to be the last track. It's the classic way to have the last track be the title track.
Do you see whole albums almost as suites that work together, even if they're not concept albums?
Kind of, yeah. I feel that every song on there is equally important. Everything that we record ends up on the album, so we want to have it one hundred percent perfect.
So instead of having fifteen four-minute songs, you have six or seven ten-minute songs.
We don't want to spend time working on songs that we know from the start are not as good as the others. If I have a basic song structure that I'm not a hundred percent satisfied with I make it one hundred percent in the studio with the 'spices'. We know what we like and what we don't like.
Some of the best moments on the album are those shifts between two sections that don't sound like they should work.
Yes, that's what we enjoy doing, putting together stuff that shouldn't go together.
Do you have any Classical influences?
Not really, I listen occasionally to Classical music, but not that often.
Do you listen to any of the contemporary Scandinavian Folk music?
Not straight Folk music, it has to be some kind of Folk Rock.
Bands like Hoven Droven and Hedningarna?
Yeah, they're pretty cool. We have tons of bands like that in Sweden that mix modern music with more traditional Folk music.
I was thinking back to the idea of using strings and an instrument like a Cello is perfect for your sound.
We've been thinking about that for a long time, but I don't want to over do stuff. There was a time when we did the second album where I was in an almost pretentious state of mind and I wanted to have everything on there. But I think it was a good choice to keep it subtle. We always wanted to have the four of us in the band doing everything on the album and we never really used any guests until Steven Wilson for this album. We're still a Metal band. We never used keyboard or anything to make certain 'sounds'. I think the guitar is very much an underrated instrument because people think they're done exploring the guitar. I think there's so much you can do with one that's never been done before. People ask me all the time who's playing the keyboards and I tell them there are none, it's all done with guitars. You can experiment so much with a guitar that it's not necessary to use keyboards. It's easy to create some kind of atmosphere by turning on a keyboard, punching a button and playing a chord. We've never been about disguising our music with some kind of cheap atmosphere.
Do you ever get a really cool guitar sound by accident and then find you're unable to recreate it later?
Yeah, we record at night sometimes and I record all my solos alone. I wanted to switch the sound a bit, so I went over to the amplifier and turned the knobs a bit, but then I couldn't remember what the initial settings were, the sound I was supposed to have, so I got some strange sounds from there. Just a simple thing like turning the volume down on the guitar. I had full distortion for doing solos, but then I turned the volume down on the guitar and did the solo for 'Harvest' with that sound.
Do you prefer to stick to simple changes like that or do you use a lot of effects?
We use effects, but simple changes are still very effective if done right. Steven came up with a lot of the effects, so I don't know what they were. He was using Pro Tools, the software'thing, I don't know anything about it, but he came up with some really cool sound with some plug-ins he used.
Are there guitarists you listen to who continue to surprise you? Guys like Bill Frisell the Jazz guitarist or Robert Fripp?
I don't like when people experiment too much, I still want to hear the guitarists themselves. I like Fripp and what he's done in the past and some of what he's doing now, but I prefer hard guitar players. One of my favorite guitarists aside from that Swedish guy that I'll be working with is Andy Latimer, the guitarist in Camel. This guy called Jerry Donahue who is a Bluegrass guitarist basically; he's doing demonstrations for Modern Guitarist I think and he used to be in Fairport Convention.
Do you know who Bill Frisell is?
I've heard the name.
He has a very distinct sound. You can tell it's him by one note.
Ok, that's what I like.
Have you heard the band Naked City?
Yeah, oh yeah! Is that him?! Oh shit! I've been listening to them, the guy who ran our first record label, candlelight, he was a very big fan of Naked City and he played us some of their stuff and it's just amazing. I'm not sure if I think it's good, but I'm absorbed in it. It's almost funny because it's so extreme. They had one song where they put in like thirty different music styles in one song it went from Jazz to Grind Metal.
Mhm, its called 'Speedfreaks', and I've seen them do it live.
You must have been laughing.
It was great and the funny part is that most of them are very unassuming, almost boring looking.
And they're a bit older. Are they American?
Yeah.
Shit yeah, I was laughing when I first heard it because I didn't know if it was a joke or not, but I could definitely tell that they knew their instruments. I have to check it out more now. I came to think of another guitar player that I really, really like. Ritchie Blackmore. He's got the tone, you can hear instantly it's him.
Do you ever just jam?
No, we rehearse so rarely that we can't waste time doing that. Which is a shame because I love it. It's also hard to do when you have two guitarists. I'm more of a jam guy than Peter is, but I've had some jams with the two Martins. It was funny, but it always turned into some kind of blues because when you jam that's really the only thing you can do and enjoy. It wouldn't be fun to jam Grind Core stuff.
Do you stretch any of the songs out when you play them live?
No, we don't jam anything live. Our songs are pretty much jammed and ready. It's something I regret a bit because as I said I love to do it. We have a track called 'Credence' that has a jam ending, so we might do something with that, since we're going to play it live.
Do you have a setlist for the upcoming tour already?
Yeah, we're gonna go for the safe cards. Since we rehearse so rarely we're going to go with the stuff we know by heart and not try something we haven't played in ten years. We'll do our standard set with the new songs added in.
How much of Blackwater Park will be included?
I think two songs. We want to cover every album and since we only have an hour onstage we want to do at least one song from each album. It's not only a Blackwater Park tour it's more like a OrchidMorningriseMyArmsYourHearseStillLifeBlackwaterPark tour.
It's the Opeth tour.
That's what people want to see and we want to give it to them.
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